Roy Blunt

I'm thankful to the former chairman and the ranking member for yielding to me on this bill. It seems to me that what we have here is a bill that has not benefited from the process of hearings. Most of our friends in the majority today, I…

I didn't like everything in it, but I did like some things in it a lot. There are some problems solved in this bill. The big problem is created in the bill in a way that I wouldn't suggest intentionally, but certainly has the effect of…

I continue to hear as these debates go on that somehow these increases are not real increases, and I continue to be mystified by that. I think if my good friend from Georgia's amendment was approved, and I voted for his cutting amendment…

I would ask on conferences, in a press report this week there was a suggestion, as a matter of fact, I think it was today, that the ethics bill might come to the House under an extraordinary procedure that didn't actually involve a…

Using my time here, I would suggest that in the previous Congress, while we did have some votes on Iraq, we did not have votes that didn't have hearings; we didn't have votes that didn't seek information. At 10:30 at night, I don't want to…

Though that possibility is one that I'm surprised wasn't in the potential work for next week, though I hear that it's not in the scheduled work for next week, I'm wondering if we would see an Iraq bill next week or in the following week…

Well, I don't remember the bills on the House floor exactly the same way that the leader does, on the House floor in the past. I think there was quite a bit of new material there. And maybe, again, I also think, while we're on this topic…

Well, I sensed the sadness on those Friday opportunities to work in the district, and I'm glad we're working those out for our Members. On the schedule next week, I'm wondering if we should anticipate any votes next week on Iraq. We voted…

my personal view is that the Vice President and the President are bound by the same standards. But that is only my personal view. And, after all, we are not the judicial branch of government. Which branch of government would we be? The…

I certainly think that this debate is more meaningful than whether the Vice President is part of the executive branch of government or not. The fairness doctrine, or the so-called fairness doctrine is a clear and bald-faced attack on free…

Mr. Chairman, the Vice President is a talented man. He is a former Member of this body, a former whip of this body. I would like to think that any former whip of the body or current whip could confuse people as much as the Vice President…

I come in support of my friend from Colorado's amendment that would reduce this by one-half of 1 percent below the spending levels of last year. Over the last 6 months, the new majority has passed or paved the way for $103.5 billion of…

This amendment is really another test of the Congress' commitment to fiscal discipline. Today we're considering a State and Foreign Operations bill that is close to another record increase. I think it is below the President's number, but…

nearly 25 years ago, President Ronald Reagan was given the option of signing what was at that time a little-known international treaty promising to bring the world's countries together to seamlessly and equitably manage the vast expanses…

I am here in support of this amendment. This amendment is one of the things that we have to look at, one of the alternatives, to just stop this spending spree that we see ourselves on. In just over 6 months the new majority has passed and…

On another topic where we had some discussions that indicated there would be an effort to have a vote before the August work period on the topic of trade. And of the agreements out there, generally the discussion was that there would be a…

That is the way I understand it, my friend, and our agreement at this point is for these appropriations bills, although in our rule last year we also extended that to authorizing bills. As you know, we don't want to continue that…

I hope that the calendar doesn't suggest that we are rushing through these bills in any way. Of course, for the time I have been in the House, and I believe the time my good friend from Maryland has been in the House, the appropriations…

I am pleased that the body will move forward this evening to approve this resolution that the Republican leaders offered. The majority leader indicated in the last Congress that the Ethics Committee didn't meet for a year. I think that is…

I thank Mr. Lewis for yielding. All I can say, Mr. Speaker, is that it is about time that we got this job done. Three and a half months to respond to our troops and to their families is too long. Frankly, I think if we had been interested…

Right. And I think to meet the objective, which I think is an objective we should do our best to meet, of moving that bill before the Memorial Day break and sending it to the President's desk, we almost have to have a bill through the…

That information to our Members a little earlier would have prevented travel on Monday for people that could have easily gotten here by the time of the Tuesday vote. It is still early in this Congress. I am really not saying that in a way…

I would say to my friend as long as the bill is available the full week before, and our opportunity at the end of the week to talk about what is going to be available, I think there is reasonableness there. On a bill that suddenly we just…

This bill has been, of course, very widely debated, pretty divisive in our points of view on it. A couple of our Members voted with you. A number of your Members voted with us against the bill. But I am certainly in agreement with the…

The legislation we have debated here tonight was at one point supposed to be an emergency supplemental spending bill for our troops, dispatched to them with urgency, resolution, and purpose. It was supposed to provide money and resources…