Elijah Cummings

Last year, however, the Postal Service reported losses of approximately $16 billion and it lost $1.3 billion in the most recent quarter.

If Congress says we want you to do something a certain way, and the postmaster came back and said, no, I am doing it my way, the postmaster would catch hell.

Having no further requests for time, Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to vote in favor of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

It is ridiculous the downward spiral that we have in that area.

When you have cuts there are consequences.

This budget demonstrates as vividly as possible how senseless sequestration is.

I oppose the cuts proposed to the Coast Guard's budget and the President's request.

I will fight like hell for somebody in rural South Dakota or wherever to be able to have access to transportation.

At the same time, they continue critical investments in infrastructure, education, job training, innovation, all of which will help to strengthen long-term economic growth. The fastest and most effective way to stabilize the economy and…

Today’s hearing falls on the 10-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Ten years ago today our Nation entered a war that has now cost the American taxpayers more than $2 trillion.

The law that we created, we created this now, says that Federal agencies must make across-the-board cuts to everything, and Congress writes the laws.

When you cut $85 billion out of a budget over a course of seven months, there are consequences. Duh.

This bill would codify in law what the President has done administratively: it would establish a legal presumption under FOIA in favor of disclosure.

I appreciate the chairman's bipartisan work on this bill and I hope we will take swift action to get it on its way to becoming law.

I think it is fair to say that the President jump-started transparency efforts in the executive branch.

On his first day in office, President Obama made clear that open government would be a priority in his administration.

This is Sunshine Week, when we celebrate the importance of transparency and openness in government.

I agree that bipartisan oversight is critical to holding agencies accountable.

I am so adamant about defending public employees is because they tell me things like this, they want to feed their soul.

I guarantee you, you ask your staff, those people sitting right behind you, them, those, they will tell you, it is not the money.

The thing that I guess I am really concerned about is I want us to make sure that when we say that there is going to be impact, that is true;

I tried to tell them if they listened to some Federal employees and asked them why they do what they do, in most instances it is because they want to help the public, period.

So I am trying to figure out what gives. Are you following what I am saying?

When we look at people losing their jobs, and there are going to be some jobs lost; when we look at people taking furloughs, like the lady that I met the other day who is going to lose $800 a month, when she has two kids, trying to put one…

These recommendations need to be followed through, and I would hope that both Departments would act on them swiftly.