William Natcher: “I rise in opposition to the amendment. This amendment would rescind over $9 billion. This amendment has much more…”

“I rise in opposition to the amendment. This amendment would rescind over $9 billion. This amendment has much more serious impacts than the one offered by Mr. Penny and Mr. Kasich that we already defeated in the House when we considered H.R. 3400 only last November. This amendment, like the one we just considered, makes double count reductions on personnel funding and other across-the-board type cuts for overhead activities in amounts in excess of $2.3 billion. The same impacts associated with this type cut that were in the Myers amendment would occur because of this proposal, as well. Additionally, the amendment proposes specific cuts to programs that make our economy grow, like EDA, TVA, and ARC. It also cuts our investment programs in areas like highways, airports, mass transit, and community development grants. It cuts our research, on which the future depends, in areas like NASA, agriculture, NOAA, NIST, nuclear and other energy research as well as the broader research spectrum in the National Science Foundation program. Others will address the specific impacts of these cuts as we proceed. I want all Members to know that these cuts are large and significant and their impacts have not been fully analyzed or understood. This amendment should be rejected.”