Ed Whitfield: “as we conclude the 108th Congress, I think all of us who served in this body feel a great sense of pride and…”

“as we conclude the 108th Congress, I think all of us who served in this body feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment for the legislation that we passed that will have a positive impact on our Nation. I think also many of us have a great deal of regret over legislation that did not pass that we needed to pass to address serious issues facing our great Nation. I am really reluctant at this time to talk about matters that I find frustrating for me personally, but I am not going to be critical of any Member, of course. But one of the processes that seems to be taking place certainly in the House of Representatives is that each year we take up more and more of the legislative calendar to pass appropriation bills. It seems that each year we do not pass all of the appropriation bills. Then what happens is at the end of the year we come forth with a gigantic omnibus bill. This year was no exception. That is one of the reasons that a few years ago on this floor, we had a vote to go to a 2-year appropriation cycle so that one year we could appropriate money for the government, and the next year we could debate substantive issues. But as I stated earlier, we find ourselves this year with a gigantic omnibus bill once again. The sad thing about it is that when that bill went over to the Senate, many provisions were placed into that bill, and the Members of the House of Representatives never had an opportunity to vote on the bill.”