Deborah Koff Ross

this evening, on behalf of the 44 member strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog coalition, I rise to spend an hour this evening talking with you and Members of this body about the Blue Dog Coalition's desire to restore fiscal…

In fact, that is point number 4 in the Blue Dog's 12-point plan for budget reform: Require agencies to put their fiscal houses in order. Number 3 was put a lid on spending. Number 5: Make Congress tell taxpayers how much they are spending.

Mr. Speaker, we are often asked how we got the name Blue Dog Coalition if we are just simply a group of fiscally conservative to moderate Democrats. Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, ironically, after the Republicans took control of Congress in…

I guess a good way of putting that was the total national debt, not just 6 years ago, but the total national debt from 1789 to 2000 was $5.67 trillion. Today, it is approaching $9 trillion; and by 2010, it is estimated to total more than…

I don't really know where to begin. My wife is a pharmacist. We own a family pharmacy back home in Prescott, Arkansas. Just minutes ago she shared with me by telephone that she had to turn her television set off because she has heard so…

reclaiming my time, that reminds me that back when we were voting on the Medicare Part D prescription drug bill, now estimated to cost billions and billions and billions of dollars over the next 10 years, it went to a vote barely a day…

You want to talk about something that is critical to our national security, it is this business that over the past 6 years we continue to cut taxes on folks earning over $400,000 a year with money that we borrowed from foreign central…

Mr. Speaker, on November 7, the American people spoke, and they said they wanted a new direction for this country both here at home and abroad. And in speaking, they gave us, as Democrats, a chance to lead in this 110th Congress. And Mr…

If folks don't recognize the current Federal minimum wage of what it means, let me tell you what it means. If you are working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, never get sick and never take a single day off of work for vacation, you earn…

The American people on election night were telling us they want us to put an end to the partisan bickering, to clean up the mess in Washington, to reach across that aisle and work together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as…

The gentleman raised an excellent point, and I am writing a plan to put America on a path towards energy independence, something Brazil will achieve this year. And the reason this is all so important, and it relates to the debt and the…

I thank the gentleman from Long Island for joining us on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives as we discuss the fiscal conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition and our plans to restore some commonsense and fiscal discipline to…

I believe an important message was sent on election night, and that message was that the American people are ready for us to put an end to the partisan bickering, to work together to clean up the mess and to put people's interests above…

We have a plan. We have a plan to restore accountability to our government, to be sure that our government is accountable for your tax money, Mr. Speaker. We have a plan, in fact it is a 12 point plan, for budget reform. So, Mr. Speaker…

FEMA at one time had 10,777. At this time, they are down, to their credit, they are now down, a year after Hurricane Katrina, to 9,778 brand new, fully furnished 16-foot wide, 60-foot long mobile homes, built-in whirlpools, built-in…

It is very interesting. Let me say as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I have a plan to put America on a path toward energy independence. If we had time we would go into it in all the details tonight. I was out visiting…

It is almost midnight at our Nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C., and yet, as members of the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, we are 37 members strong, and we are here on the floor of the United States House of…

earlier this afternoon I missed rollcall vote 442. I would like to state for the Record that I would have voted for rollcall vote 442, which was the Scott (D-VA) amendment that would allow the Federal Prison Industries to continue…

I thank our co-chair for policy of the Blue Dog Coalition Jim Cooper from Tennessee for his insight on these many issues. And what I am so proud of is that we are not here to be partisan, we are not here to beat up the Republicans. We are…

I want to thank both of these fine gentlemen, very active leaders in the Blue Dog Coalition, for joining me this evening. We raise these issues, the largest debt ever in our Nation's history, largest deficit ever in our Nation's history…

I welcome you both to continue with me in this dialogue in this Special Order on restoring fiscal discipline and common sense and accountability in our Nation's government. Since President Bush took office, the amount of foreign held…

The gentleman from Georgia raises an excellent point that gets to our point about accountability within our government. If you ask a hundred different people what they think about this post-war Iraq policy, you get a hundred different…

I should have provided the gentleman a copy. There is good news. You mentioned the 19 of 24 Federal agencies could not produce a clean audit. That number has actually changed. There is good news. The General Accountability Office now…

People ask us all the time, if the Democrats are put in control of this body, what are they going to do differently? These are two commonsense Blue Dog Coalition-backed proposals about how we will restore accountability to the Federal…

again, on a Tuesday evening, I come here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives on behalf of the 37-member strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. We are a group of 37 Democrats that are fiscally…