David Thomas

we are here today with a Presidential veto threat, and I am here to address that provision in the Medicare and Medicaid area, because in the President's message, he said, as several of my Democratic colleagues have said, that the bill…

I, too, am anxious that we complete the work we have before us. We still have three important appropriations bills to put together. I hope we can deal with respect to the issues and move away from some of what has happened, where we have…

it is interesting the way people deal with history around here. For more than 40 years this party was the majority. As recently as 1993 they owned the government. They had the House; they had the Senate. They had the Presidency and yet…

I think the focus today, as we move toward the appropriations bills, is education. It has been a focus during this whole Congress. I saw some figures that we spent a total, in the 106th Congress, of 5 weeks talking about education. That is…

I certainly join my friend from Texas. He spells out some things that are quite clear but obviously are not talked about very much. I was listening earlier to my friend from North Dakota, who talked about the differences between the…

In 1989, the Smithsonian, as part of its various programs, began an astrophysical observatory located on the island of Hawaii on the volcano Mauna Kea. There are a number of other observatories located there as well. This bill is to…

Mr. Speaker, Senate bill 3201 has its House counterpart authored by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula). This is an interesting bill. It is ``what is in a name.'' We currently have the National Museum of American Art, and we are going to…

H.R. 5410 is a bill to allow the Library of Congress to create three revolving funds so that the monies garnered from various activities could be retained by the library to be reinvested in those areas. One of the revolving funds is a gift…

I wanted to go back to the remarks of the Senator from North Dakota as he talked about some of the issues that all of us are concerned about, issues such as pharmaceuticals--how we make that work; issues such as Medicare--which needs…

I want to speak about energy, which seems to be one of the things I think is very important that people are talking about. But first I wish to comment a little on the progress, or lack thereof, that we are making in the Senate. It is not…

This passed 2 weeks ago, Senator. Why hasn't it come up before this and not at the very end? I have been urging it, I respond to my colleague. Since the day after we passed it, I have been begging the leadership every day to bring up this…

I thank the Chair. As I have said before, energy is terribly important to all of us. It is particularly important to those of us who come from producer States. But perhaps if you come from a part of the country where there is no production…

I want to go back a little bit to one of the issues that is before us that has to do with energy and energy policy. Certainly, we are faced at the moment with some real difficulties in terms of winter use of heating oil. There are…

I want to suggest something that is very exciting for those of us in Wyoming and, I think, all over the country. I will start with a headline off of the Internet: ``American Stops Russian's 13-year Streak.'' It says: ``I cannot believe I…

I just believe it is really important to talk a little bit about the whole idea of what has been going on here now for several months, where we have been seeking to make some reforms and seeking to move forward, moving a number of bills…

We want to provide this benefit to your citizens in Nevada, so even though that same criticism was leveled at Nevada, the private sector will not participate. They do not like this plan. We found at least there that that criticism was not…

What is especially of concern to me about now, apparently the news media's understanding that the Vice President manufactured some facts to try to make his point is that there is a lot of reality out there that is better than made-up…

the key term is ``flexibility.'' As I said, we are on the verge of a dramatic breakthrough and a number of drugs are going to be available that are not currently on the market. One of the reasons that the nonpartisan analysts that we use…

That particular program 3 years, but actually there is one program on the statutes that has been 7 years languishing waiting for the Health Care Finance Administration to implement it through regulation. So 7 years for that, 3 years for…

Our bill provides that competition in negotiation, and the only thing I am really pleased about with Governor George W. Bush's plan is he gets it, he understands the need for that competition in negotiation to provide a better product…

And what we get out of that, as we repeated over and over, is the flexibility of choosing, but also the advantage through the competition of a lower price to the seniors, and, of course, given that the Medicare program is taxpayer…

tonight we want to discuss one of the measures that has passed the House of Representatives. Sometimes, we do not feel the need to discuss measures that have gone through committee and have passed the House, but since there has been so…

I have asked to speak out of order for 1 minute because there is a situation here on the floor that may not recur again. There are many new Members here who are beginning to learn that this institution could not run without the staffs that…

I want to join in commemorating California's 150th year as a State. Our diversity and the pioneering spirit of our people should be clear to anyone who visits the communities in Kern and Tulare Counties in my Congressional District, the…

I want to take a couple of moments. I already mentioned my concerns about the Thompson amendment, but I have to say it is interesting that the Senator is curious as to why there are objections to this amendment. He ought to recall that the…