On the recordJune 26, 2012
My amendment will reduce funding for salaries and expenses for the Surface Transportation Board by $1,940,000. This office is one of 13 in the underlying bill which would receive increases for administrative expenses in this underlying bill. Passage of my amendment would simply bring funding levels back to current levels, fiscal year 2012. Madam Chair, we are spending money we don't have. We have reduced our own operating expenses as Members of the House by 11 percent, over 11 percent, and this amendment would just freeze--would prevent any increase in the salaries and expenses for the Surface Transportation Board--to this year's level. {time} 2200 We've got to be fiscally responsible, Madam Chairman, as a Nation. We've got to stop the outrageous spending that's going on here in Washington. And this doesn't even stop it; this just freezes it at the current levels. This, hopefully, is going to put a little spotlight on the fact that we need to stop spending money we don't have, stop borrowing 40 cents on every dollar the Federal Government spends. My amendment would just freeze spending at the current levels. I urge support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
