Ed Whitfield: “All of us are very much concerned about excessive spending by the Federal Government. We know we have a serious debt, we…”

“All of us are very much concerned about excessive spending by the Federal Government. We know we have a serious debt, we have a serious deficit, and all of us are determined to bring that in line and to solve that problem. Now, the gentleman from California's amendment is trying to use the so-called CutGo rule as a means to invalidate this legislation. In our legislation, we do not authorize the appropriation of any additional funds. We do not create any new programs in this legislation. And I might say that each year EPA receives an appropriation for its activities, and we know that more than any other agency in the Federal Government, EPA is sued more than almost any other agency. At any one time, they have 400 or 500 lawsuits going. As a result of many of those lawsuits, they have to go back and they have to re-look at rules and so forth; and there's never any additional money appropriated to them for that purpose. So what we're doing in this legislation is no different than what they deal with at EPA every year. Now, CBO did come forth and say that over a 5-year period, because they would have to re-look at these rules and issue new rules and so forth, there would be maybe a million dollars in additional cost. But that's not any different than what EPA goes through every year, as I said, because of lawsuits that are filed. Our position is we do not authorize additional money in this legislation.…”