On the recordJune 9, 2016
As I said, this bill has already taken hit after hit. We are far below the levels that we were at in 2010. We have employees who deserve to be assured that we have enough respect for their professionalism that we are going to adequately fund their ability to do their jobs, which is to represent our constituents. This amendment takes, as I said, a meat-ax approach rather than what the chairman and I worked together to do, which is to develop the substantive portions of this bill related to the funding of the legislative branch in a precisionlike way. It doesn't make sense. I have never heard of polling that actually asks generic questions of constituents on whether they like or dislike across-the-board cuts. I am not sure what the purpose of electing Members of Congress is if we are going to just make indiscriminate, across-the-board decisions rather than use our brains and build consensus around the decisions that we make. That is the type of approach that this amendment would take, and it is inappropriate. We need to make sure that we are adequately funding the legislative branch functions so that we can represent our constituents effectively. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
