On the recordSeptember 30, 2013
I appreciate the gentlewoman yielding. Mr. Speaker, I have heard a lot of discussion about the budget. I have heard a lot of discussion about a continuing resolution, and I have heard a lot about the Affordable Care Act; but I see the chairman of the Appropriations Committee here on the floor, and I see the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee on the floor, and I don't hear a lot of discussion about what I would call the operative word tonight, and that is ``appropriations.'' In article I, section 8 of the United States Constitution, the Congress is charged with constituting tribunals, courts, inferior to the Supreme Court. In the very next section, we are told we need to appropriate those monies to do so. We are told in article I, section 8 of the United States Constitution that Congress must provide and maintain a Navy. In section 9, we are told, absent an appropriation from the Congress, that will not happen. The fiscal year begins tomorrow, and my great fear is that when a resolution of this continuing resolution occurs, if the date is December 15, we are going to make every agency and every department of United States Government operate just as they did last year--and, of course, last year we made them operate the way they did the year before--and have them wait for another 2\1/2\ months before we tell them what we are going to do. {time} 1945 I would suggest the operative word tonight is ``appropriations.'' We should do the Defense appropriations bill.…
