Jack Kingston: “I wanted to say that the legislative branch bill is somewhat the inside baseball bill, the operating budget for the U.S.…”

“I wanted to say that the legislative branch bill is somewhat the inside baseball bill, the operating budget for the U.S. Capitol. It includes not just the legislative branch per se but the Capitol Hill Police, the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office, the General Accounting Office and many other important government agencies which we all depend on. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), the ranking member, and I have worked very closely on our bill this year, and its total spending is $2.7 billion, which is a decrease of about $34 million below last year, or about 1.2 percent. It is 10 percent below the actual request. Every agency has had to take reductions, and we have had to say no to many of our friends to get to this number, but we think that we have been fair across the board. For example, this bill does not require any reductions in the current force, and it fully funds the traditional COLA of the leg branch employees at a level of 3.7 percent. The other thing the bill does, along with keeping a very tight line on the fiscal side of it, is that it does not provide any new authorizations. So we are not changing anything in this bill. It is what we refer to as a clean appropriations bill.”