I strongly support it. Pfiesteria is a very serious problem that we have all along the east coast of the United States. It is responsible for major fish kills, for the closing of recreational and commercial waterways, and it is a major…

This amendment does not take us back to status quo. It does not. Currently there are procedures for non-Members to file complaints. That is eliminated. The three-Member refusal is gone. The transmittal by a Member automatically is gone…

Mr. Chairman, I have the deepest respect for the author of this amendment. He is a person who has fought long and hard to improve the credibility of this institution. I disagree with this amendment. I think it moves in the wrong direction…

Mr. Chairman, I will take the time now to talk about the two other amendments that were made in order under the rule. One, I think Mr. Berman covered very adequately, about the automatic dismissal if a matter pending a vote on an…

Mr. Chairman, we are not turning over anything to anybody outside of this institution. We are not turning over anything. The resolution before us restricts the rights of non-Members to file complaints. It is more restricted than the…

Mr. Chairman, the underlying resolution makes it much less likely that we are going to have a deadlock vote in the committee. We have given the chairman and ranking member a lot more ability to manage the work load of the committee. So I…

Mr. Speaker, this will be the last opportunity that this House will have to reform the ethics process in a bipartisan manner. We have had a good debate on the floor. I think the issues have been well debated. I would hope that in the end…

They do not need the amendment. They already have the power within the rules package to do it. Mr. Chairman, for all the reasons that we have said, this well-intended amendment would only add more likelihood rather than less likelihood…

I agree with the points that he has made. The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Bunning] has been a very valuable member of the Ethics Committee. I know that his amendment is sincere. We just disagree as to what would be the most efficient way…

first I want to concur in the comments that the gentleman from South Carolina made a little earlier, and that is we need to look first to 1993, to the Deficit Reduction Act that was passed under the leadership of President Clinton and the…

I understand the pressures the committee is under this year and particularly that the Park Service's fiscal year 1998 construction budget included two extremely high cost projects, but the Fort McHenry project is also a priority and is in…

I would like to talk primarily on the Medicare provisions because we worked long and hard in this House to bring out a bipartisan bill on Medicare. The other body, in raising the eligibility from 65 to 67, have brought forward a major…

The truth is that our Tax Code is slightly progressive. That is, those in the upper incomes pay a slightly higher percentage of their income in taxes. But the people who are hurting, the people who are having a difficult time paying their…

When we look at the tax proposals when fully implemented, under the Republican bill less than one-third of the tax relief goes to those that are of middle income, no matter what definition we use for middle income. ... when I go to my…

The gentleman is correct. In fact, that person actually is paying some income taxes, paying about $600 in income taxes but they are paying FICA taxes and other taxes, that for many American families, the FICA tax is the largest amount of…

It is interesting that that person actually pays over $2,700 in taxes and, if we put in the employer's share of FICA, pays over $4,500 in taxes. Under the Republican bill, that family would receive not a dime under the child credit…

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will support the rule and support the underlying legislation. The intelligence community is in a very difficult position. Because of the classified nature of their work, it is difficult for them to respond…

This bill should be known, since we are going on the Fourth of July break at the end of today, as the Fireworks Tax Act of 1997. We are going to have exploding deficits if this bill is passed in a way that it has been presented. The…

Mr. Speaker, in regards to the Medicare provisions, I want to applaud the process that was used. It was a true bipartisan process. I want to congratulate the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas], the chairman of the Subcommittee on…

I heard all these arguments before against United States involvement on human rights issues. We were told with the Soviet Union that the United States would be alone. Just the opposite was the case when we stood up and denied…

Mr. Speaker, in the 11 years I have been in Congress to receive Presidential budgets, this budget is the best received I have ever seen by our colleagues. And there is good reason for that. The track record of the Clinton administration…

as I have said, this is a sad moment for the House of Representatives. One of our Members has admitted to a serious violation of the House rules. This process and this admission affects not only that Member but each Member who serves in…

I just wanted to correct the record on that because the subcommittee was in constant contact with the ranking member and chairman since December 21 to deal with the schedule, and at no time was there any delay caused because of someone…

Although we requested about 30 days ago what the transition rule would look like, we got our first draft of it yesterday morning. So we just got the transition rule yesterday morning. The second point I would point out is that Mr. Cole and…

the issue presented by H.R. 1833, the partial birth abortion bill, is one that requires careful thought and consideration. The medical procedure that is addressed by this legislation is, in my judgment and in the judgment of hundreds of my…