Roy Cooper

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an honor to recognize the Reverend Raymond Bowman today, who just gave the opening prayer. Seldom has Congress been more in need of prayer than we are today. Rev. Bowman was raised in Chicago. He came to…

I thank my colleagues. I appreciate their bipartisan effort on this important memorial resolution to honor Tennessee's historic role in making ratification of the Amendment possible. I want to point out that the State of Tennessee played…

I thank all of my colleagues for their unanimous bipartisan support of this resolution honoring the people of the three State areas that were affected. We suffered one of the great rainfalls of modern times, literally doubled the prior…

Last weekend the people of Nashville and middle Tennessee suffered the worst losses from flooding in many, many decades along the Cumberland, Harpeth, and other rivers and streams. Even homes far from any body of water suffered as much as…

I woke up this Sunday morning, said my prayers, and finally decided that I will vote ``yes'' on health care reform. Having heard from tens of thousands of Middle Tennesseans on all sides of the issue (including the flood of messages in the…

I will vote against the Previous Question Motion today because I think the American people deserve a clear, up- or-down vote on health reform. They deserve to know how their elected representative voted, without any parliamentary confusion…

the OCC took 50 sheriffs off the job during the time the mortgage lending industry was becoming the Wild West.

at its simplest level, the House Armed Services Committee is the military's best friend, the best friend to the soldier, the sailor, the airman, and the marine. And under the leadership of Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Hunter, we are…

I thank the chairman, Ike Skelton of Missouri, who has done a tremendous job of leading this important bill through this Congress and including this very, very important amendment that I urge my colleagues to support. No Member of this…

I'm happy to support this budget. One of the reasons is the extraordinary leadership of the chairman of the House Budget Committee, John Spratt from South Carolina. A true gentleman, a man of wisdom, he has done the difficult work of…

this is a very simple but important amendment. It will help Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as well as Historically Black Graduate Institutions. What it would do is raise the authorization level for HBCUs, Historically Black…

there is no reason to make this debate more complicated than it is. It all revolves around a very simple but vitally important principle: whether the United States Government pays its bills. We think that it should. The principle is called…

This PAYGO principle is fundamental to good government. All it means is that you pay as you go, you pay your bills. That's what this Congress should do, just as every American family knows that they should pay their bills. It's a…

Well, the gentleman's exactly right. An authority of no less than Alan Greenspan said that PAYGO was the most important reform that this Congress could undertake to right our fiscal imbalance. PAYGO was actually started under the first…

I personally was on the tarmac at the Baghdad Airport when a C-130 plane flew in, and the Air Force did not want us to see that plane land and unload its cargo. Well, why was that? Here are a group of U.S. Congressman standing on the…

Well, we probably should mention the meeting that you and I had with all the other Blue Dogs with three remarkably distinguished Americans this afternoon because they, too, gave us some insight in our current fiscal situation in this…

If there has ever been a good government measure, this is it. There are some 58 IGs scattered throughout the Federal Government. They are the fiscal watchdogs for the taxpayer. They are the first line of defense against fraud, waste and…

I speak as a Blue Dog Democrat, and I'm proud to see progressives and Blue Dogs, Democrats and Republicans coming together on this important good government cause. We've been working on it for 4 years now, and now it's about to pass. We're…

President Bush, having vetoed fewer bills than almost any President in American history, is now talking about vetoing many bills. One of these is the children's health insurance bill, the so-called CHIP or SCHIP piece of legislation. To…

I am personally extremely disappointed that our provision allowing what would otherwise be antitrust violation, wrongful, possibly criminal behavior, would be allowed to be inserted in this bill, apparently without the knowledge of anyone…

everyone should be able to support the upcoming Cooper amendment, whether you're for or against the farm bill. It really doesn't make any difference because my amendment doesn't affect 99 percent of what's in the farm bill, but it does…

I suggest the time is now, because there are literally billions of dollars of corporate welfare we can and must be saving starting tonight. These 16 companies, there are only 16 companies, made $2.8 billion, at taxpayer expense, profit in…

the one thing that we should all be able to agree on in this House regarding the upcoming farm bill is the need to reform crop insurance. The folks back home are demanding that we cut Federal spending, and this is not only a great way to…

We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.

Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.