Timothy Roemer: “Simply put, Mr. Chairman, this amendment requires unexpended congressional office funds from the salaries and expenses…”

“Simply put, Mr. Chairman, this amendment requires unexpended congressional office funds from the salaries and expenses of Members representational account allowances not to be respent, not to be shifted into a Speaker's slush fund or spent on marble elevator floors, but to instead go directly to the U.S. Treasury to reduce the deficit. Now we have been working on this for several years, Mr. Chairman. Last year we voice voted this amendment. The year before we had 403 Members, Democrats and Republicans, agree to pass this legislation. We think that this is fair. In the context of this week we are debating maybe the most important legislation to balance the budget that we have considered in this body since the balanced budget amendment or since we balanced the budget in 1969. We are considering how to share and sacrifice to get to a balanced budget, and certainly that sharing and sacrificing should start here in the House of Representatives.”