Hal Rogers: “Chairman Graves, thank you for yielding the time, and thank you for the great work. This is the first bill that Chairman…”

“Chairman Graves, thank you for yielding the time, and thank you for the great work. This is the first bill that Chairman Graves has brought to the floor of the House. He is the newest cardinal that we have, one of the 12 subcommittee chairmen--they are called cardinals--and this is his first bill. I want to congratulate him and Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz for putting together what I think is a pretty high standard for fiscal responsibility for the House, freezing funding at last year's level, $3.3 billion. That is the third year in a row, Mr. Chairman, that we have frozen the budget of the House of Representatives, making good on our promise to rein in spending and do more with less. {time} 1530 This level maintains the 14 percent reduction in House funding that began when Republicans took control of the House 4 years ago. In addition, we have continued the freeze on Member pay that has been in place since 2010. We believe that in order for us to ask others to sacrifice throughout the government, that we have to sacrifice, ourselves, first; and that is what this bill does. The bill includes numerous provisions designed to guarantee that the House and its support agencies are spending their tax dollars appropriately and to keep them accountable to the taxpayers. This includes enhancing oversight of the Cannon building restoration project and making sure that Congress approves any large-scale construction project.…”