John W. Olver: “Tomorrow this House is going to take up H.R. 1469, which in its major part is an emergency appropriation bill to help…”

“Tomorrow this House is going to take up H.R. 1469, which in its major part is an emergency appropriation bill to help the flood victims in the western part of the States, particularly North Dakota, deal with a very tragic situation. Within that bill, in title I of that bill, section 601 of that legislation makes a major change in the procurement policy under which our Bureau of Engraving and Printing operates which has never been considered by either the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight under the leadership of the gentleman from Indiana nor the Committee on Banking and Financial Services under the leadership of the gentleman from Iowa. Neither of the authorizing committees dealing with this subject has held so much as a single hearing on the issue that is before us and, therefore, it has no place in an appropriations bill and is clearly not an emergency matter related to the victims of national emergencies. Now, the provision involved in section 601 requires that the Treasury Department must give capitalization subsidies to companies that are interested in becoming new suppliers of currency paper to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Capitalization subsidies are cash payments for new equipment or new facilities in order to manufacture paper. The amount of such cash payments could reach as much as $100 million.”