Mike Pence: “2005 will be remembered as a year of good intentions, bad disasters and promises kept. This spring, Congress adopted the…”

“2005 will be remembered as a year of good intentions, bad disasters and promises kept. This spring, Congress adopted the toughest budget since the Reagan years, and the Appropriations Committee reported one bill after another, on time and on budget. Then came the heartbreak that was Hurricane Katrina, 90,000 square miles of the gulf coast destroyed. Congress responded by speeding relief and recovery funds totaling $60 billion in 6 days to rebuild the families and communities destroyed by this storm. After the storm, many in Washington thought that fiscal discipline was the last thing Congress should be thinking about, preferring raising taxes or raising the national debt to making tough choices, but not this majority. Seeing that a catastrophe of nature could become a catastrophe of debt, dozens of House conservatives challenged the Congress to offset the cost of Hurricane Katrina with budget cuts. And I will always believe that their effort, which came to be known as Operation Offset, helped spark a national debate that propelled us to this moment tonight. The American people wanted Washington to pay for Katrina with budget cuts, and Washington got the message. In direct response to President George W. Bush's call for offsets, Speaker Dennis Hastert unveiled a bold plan we consider tonight, to find budget cuts from every area of the Federal Government.…”