Tom Price: “I am somewhat amused by the posture of the Appropriations Chair in the last two amendments, and I appreciate the…”

“I am somewhat amused by the posture of the Appropriations Chair in the last two amendments, and I appreciate the difficult position he finds himself in. But on the one hand, the amendment before this one attempting to support the President's recommendation and then on this one lambasting the President's recommendation. So a case of whiplash, I understand, may be in order. But it is important to talk about exactly what this amendment does. And I want to commend my good friend from Texas for proposing this amendment. The Department of Labor proposes in the President's budget that $14 million go to the International Labor Affairs Bureau, which would move the agency closer to its core mission of research and policy analysis. Remember this is the Department of Labor, not the Department of State. In 2008 the International Labor Affairs Bureau will continue to focus on administering over $530 million, $530 million, in projects that were launched in previous years, including in the field of child labor, as the chairman mentioned. The Department of Labor seeks to restore the International Labor Affairs Bureau to its original mission of research and advocacy by eliminating its grant-making activities. We have all sorts of duplication and redundancies in the Federal Government, and this certainly is one of them.”