Hal Rogers: “if we really want to create a crisis, an emergency in everyone's definition, then we will support this amendment and…”

“if we really want to create a crisis, an emergency in everyone's definition, then we will support this amendment and force us to go back and cut the FBI, the DEA, the weather service, foreign embassies and the like 15 percent, which will practically shut down the courts. We have to find the money somewhere if we take this money out of the bill. I do not want to be responsible for that, and I would hope that the Members would not agree to take that money out. If we want to ensure that we meet our constitutional duty to provide for the census and maintain funding for these other critical agencies in this bill, I trust and hope that we will support the bill that is before us today and reject the amendment that would prohibit and preclude the conduct of the decennial census in the year 2000. Now, it has been said this is some sort of a gimmick. People on that side of the aisle have said this is some sort of a gimmick. Well, when the President set up his budget request earlier, Mr. Chairman, his budget request included $42 billion worth of budget gimmicks, user fees, and emergencies all through that budget request. We have rejected those. But many in this body, most in this body who voted for those budget caps in 1997, now are saying, ah, this is a gimmick to get around the budget caps, but you have to do the census and you have to maintain funding for the law enforcement agencies. My colleagues, we cannot have it all ways. We have to make a choice here.”