Harold Volkmer

Members of the House, today is the 92d day of the imperial speakership. You know, yesterday afternoon, discussing with one of the Gingrich Republicans about their tax bill, I advised them that I did not plan to vote for that tax bill. I…

this is the 92d day of our imperial speakership. What has happened in that 92 days? Well, they voted, the majority Republicans voted to take heating assistance away from my poor, they voted to take school lunches and breakfasts out of the…

the gentleman is telling the Members of the House that this program, which to me in a very mean-spirited way is being cut by the majority, is actually to the benefit of infants and children.

So it is all right to take care of them someplace else, but we cannot do it for our own people. We have got to cut them out. Our people have to make all these sacrifices, and no one else does. We are going to take care of the rest of them…

And, no question, by cutting it they are saying that it is all right to do this to the infants and children of people here in the United States; is that correct?

And there is no question in the gentleman's mind and my mind that somewhere along the line this very same committee is going to fund programs that are going to take care of infants and children in other parts of the world?

that was a contract that the Congress, back when these veterans were coming home, had with our veterans that preserved the freedoms that we have. To me, that contract is just as important, if not more important, than the Contract With…

I want to give another problem with what I call the generational gap... it does restore the money by taking it out of funds under NAFTA for Mexico to do wastewater treatment, and also from NASA, from some of their operational programs, so…

I don't know if I can say the exact words, but to me it is strictly a slap in the face to veterans. And these are the people, as depicted in these pictures and elsewhere, that with bullets flying around them were willing to give their…

Would the gentleman also, as the gentlewoman from Florida, consider this a breach of the contract that Congress has with our veterans, especially our World War II veterans?

I, too, would like to bring the attention of the House to what I call the mean-spirited, hard-hearted manner in which the Committee on Appropriations and the subcommittee has refused to restore the funds that were authorized and…

This money that they are taking from these outpatient clinics, yours, mine, those of the gentlewoman from Florida [Ms. Brown] and others, is going to go for tax cuts, and 75 percent of that money goes to the wealthy?

What I am trying to tell my majority whip is they are limiting the amendments by structuring it so we cannot offer amendments unless we make deeper cuts in the programs that we believe in.

I am willing to offset, you understand. We found the money to offset. The Parliamentarian tells me it does not fit because we are taking money, we are cutting money elsewhere than what is cut in the bill. If I do not cut, deeper that is…

I cannot cut money someplace else in that chapter, in that agency. I cannot make that cut unless there is already a cut within that in the bill in that specific amount or area.

Well then, what the gentleman is telling me basically is I had hoped that what is good for the goose is going to be good for the gander, and if you are not going to permit further things like I would like to do or the gentleman from…

I had drafted an amendment in regard to restoring the funds for the veterans' outpatient clinic, one in my district that was eliminated in this rescission bill, and I would like to get that money back in.

we are now at day 65, if my math is right, of 100 days and we are now getting to see toward the final 35 days of that 100 days. And when we look at it we look to see that we are going to have severe reductions in food stamps, school…

last year Members of the present majority complained about the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Fiske. They claimed that Fiske was a friend of the White House and that his investigation of Whitewater was not going far enough. I ask…

I rise today seeking an answer. The House Appropriations Committee is meeting this morning to mark up legislation that would rescind selected appropriations that were authorized for fiscal year 1995. My question is: How do they justify…

I wish to join with the gentleman from Minnesota, the gentleman from Texas, who spoke earlier and others, in very strong support of this amendment. This is one time when I have to leave my other friends within the Democratic Party, because…

We do not pay farmers not to farm anymore. We have a CRP program that pays farmers not to use that land for CRP, but that does not decrease the value of the land. They get a payment on the CRP. Environmentalists and everybody agrees on…

No, this is a voluntary program. It is a voluntary program. The farmer comes in and asks that the land be. So it is not a taking.

I rise again to call on our House Ethics Committee to take steps to name an independent counsel to investigate the ever growing list of possible ethics violations by the Speaker. Only an independent counsel can remove the cloud of…

This is the question, whether they are going to use Federal tax dollars for the purpose of assisting and protecting the clinics. That is what it amounts to. Last year we passed a bit that protected----