On the recordFebruary 8, 2012
Let me begin by thanking the chairman of the committee, Paul Ryan, and our staffs for working together in a cooperative and bipartisan manner on what I think is a very important piece of legislation to bring before the House. While we have deep disagreements in this House over many policy issues, I know that we all agree that we should be responsible and careful stewards of taxpayer dollars. That's what this bill before us is all about. It creates new mechanisms for greater transparency and greater accountability in spending taxpayer dollars. I believe that it will, over time, result in a better use of those taxpayer dollars, and savings identified through this process will go to deficit reduction. For those of us who believe that government can play a positive role in people's lives by creating opportunities, like investing in education for our kids, like strengthening our economy through investments in infrastructure--our roads, our bridges, broadband--by making key investments in scientific research, for those of us who believe that, it is especially important that taxpayers have confidence that their tax dollars are being used wisely. To the extent they don't believe that, it makes it more difficult to invest in the common good. So we should take every opportunity in this body to make sure those taxpayer dollars are being well spent. Let's be clear about what this bill does and what it does not do.…
