Porter Goss

I do not want to speak for the Line Item Veto Act. The Line Item Veto Act speaks for itself. As the gentleman knows, we did discretionary authority, new entitlements and targeted tax benefits in line-item veto. So to the extent what we are…

I think that that was the clarification that we were all seeking with regard to the line item veto, and I think that to go any further than that, to try and somehow now amend the line item veto, would of course not only be inappropriate…

I am pleased to hear the chairman's assurance on that. Our reading of the bill did not include that assurance. I am pleased to have that assurance that the line-item veto will apply, and I think it will necessarily preclude an amendment…

I have stood here many times to argue that the Everglades is a national treasure that needs and deserves our help and we have taken steps in the past to address the degradation of the Everglades and Florida Bay, for which I am grateful but…

Mr. Speaker, it is hard to negotiate when one of the parties will not put on the table an opening offer. Therefore, this House tonight will pass a resolution which will implicitly ask the question that the press and the media in this…

I want to thank Members for the bipartisan spirit in this. This is a complicated issue, as we have said. We are trying to do the right thing. I hope this is the right way to proceed. With the assurances we have from the gentleman that we…

I think efforts are underway to tighten the disclosure requirements to bring sunshine and accountability into our process. Certainly as Members know, these principles sound easy, but they are not as easy when you start applying them…

Deliberate speed means different things of course on different sides of the aisle, but I think at this point we have a promise to go by early next year on this, and we are going to start the hearings tomorrow.

I am proud that this House, following the lead of the other body, will demonstrate that we are not afraid to stand up for what is moral and what is right.

I agree. I think what happened clearly was there was the thought, the expectation, that others were going to offer the amendment, and it did not happen and we got into this dilatory process.

The people of East Timor have been the victims for a long time. I agree it is a serious problem. I recognize the gentleman represents people from Portugal in his district. I understand his sensitivity. I also know that other Members of…

This year's spring break tragically, as we all know, was overshadowed by the terrible bomb blast that occurred April 19 in Oklahoma City. Our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims, their families, the entire Oklahoma community, and…

I think it is a little bit disingenuous to say the sky is falling on this very important subject when we have made in order 15 amendments, have got all kinds of debate time out there.

My amendment calls for a 30 percent trigger for the total market value, for the market value of the total parcel.

I do not agree with the amendment. I hope the fact they have the amendment indicates that perhaps the gentlewoman will support the line-item veto legislation with or without the amendment.

I just wanted to point out, it is true I did say that if there is belt tightening, it should be shared by all. But I would like to point out, H.R. 2 talks about discretionary budget and talks about numbers. It does not talk about policy…

Unfortunately, as the gentlewoman knows, that never transpired into final fruition. So what happened is, we have put it back into a process to complete the concern that Mr. Michel had about what does this really mean. And we have done that…

I would only point out I was not speaking of Fort Myers or Naples. I was speaking of Immokalee, Tice, and Alva, and places like that that are just as distressed.

The gentleman makes fabulous points. Unfortunately, the gentleman may not know that his amendment was offered in the Rules Committee and was voted down, sadly. It was offered by Republicans because we do not think this should be a partisan…