David Thomas

I wish to tell my friend from Indiana that I ran 10 times before I was given the ability to vote on a measure to repeal the death tax. So it took us a long time to get here. I might say it also required a change in the majority in the…

I tell my friend, he probably ought not to use Herbert Hoover as an example. That President raised taxes and plunged us into the Depression. We are here cutting taxes. Mr. Speaker, talk is cheap. We hear talk about the weather, we hear…

We have not had an energy policy in the United States, I am sorry to say, for the last 8 years. As a result, we did not look at what the demand was going to be, where the supply was going to be, and, indeed, have found ourselves depending…

I do not know of anyone else who follows a course in which his professional action is paralleled by his personal action. Any time I have been in a closed room with the gentleman from Texas, and we have had to reconcile a difference, the…

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…

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…

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 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…

I want to share with the leader my sorrow and sadness in not having Paul Coverdell here with us. I extend our condolences to his family.

I do believe that the sense of this resolution is to make sure that medical decisions are made by the medical professionals, but I do have some concern about the wording because it says that it is the sense of Congress that decisions…

Yes, I can describe them. First, we federalize the dual eligibles. We give the governors more than $22.8 billion in additional funds to spend in their States. Second, the bill allows maximum flexibility to take current State programs and…

This vote will clearly highlight those who want to do something about the marriage penalty, who want to do something about tax simplification, tax fairness, and those who do not. Marriage should be a sacred event, not a taxable one. We…

I believe all of us want to find a better solution to illegal gun use. We intend to do that. People in my State believe more laws are not the answer, that, indeed, the enforcement of gun laws is the answer. We are pleased to see that the…

I would only note that the gentleman who just spoke said that he hopes the bill that comes out of conference resembles Dingell-Norwood. If this motion to instruct passes, it has to look exactly like it. So I think it is fairly clear that…

I did not offer this substitute for cynical reasons. I offered it in case anybody really wanted to change the law. That is our chance tonight. The Democrats had a majority in the House, had a majority in the Senate, and had the Presidency…

Mr. Chairman, this debate is getting a little bizarre. As the gentleman from Massachusetts well knows, the Beck decision applies to nonunion members, to those who are not members of the union. The whole point is, the coerced union dues are…

Mr. Chairman, I certainly was not a lit major in college, but my recollection of Edgar Allen Poe's The Telltale Heart, was that the heart beating was in his head, that in fact it was a dream, it was a myth. It was not reality, and I think…

I find it amazing that the First Amendment protections are now called a loophole. Perhaps it is a good idea that we are just voting on campaign reform because, if the Bill of Rights was on the floor, I would fear for its continued support.

I think the Senator from Arkansas stated very clearly the strong feeling that I have received from folks in Wyoming. As I went around as well, when I first talked about tax relief, people kind of rolled their eyes. But when you start…

As was indicated, this is the use of the rotunda for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of NATO, and it is an especially important fiftieth anniversary because of the beginning of the expansion of NATO across what we used to know…

It does not respond to a yes or no answer. I will tell the gentleman why, because the Congressional Budget Office said this has no budgetary consequence. It is an intergovernmental transfer. The gentleman's argument is they are saving the…

The gentleman did say there was no limit, and I knew he did not intend to convey that there is no limit under the law.

It is entirely appropriate that at the time that the Chestnut family is, in fact, remembering their father and husband and friend and relative, that we establish this fund. At this time I would also like to thank the gentleman from…

The current system is fatally flawed. What we are doing is simply working on the edges. The only way to fundamentally deal with the problems in our health insurance area is to empower consumers, empower them with the wherewithal to…