the Oklahoma City tragedy has spread some connective tissue among Americans. It has compelled us not only to recognize our fragile vulnerability, but to reaffirm our basic unity. I am bemused by the new crop of civil libertarians the…

thanks to Chairman Bill Clinger, ranking Member Cardiss Collins, and subcommittee Chairman Tom Davis, we are seeing a rare moment in any Congress, and certainly in this one. A very difficult bill has been crafted and then unanimously…

we are pedaling backward fast, crushing kids as we go. Cut the heat at home, cut the lunches at school. There is no escaping the cuts, kids. Have we forgotten the shameful revelations of hunger and poverty that produced the American…

Mr. Chairman, I rise to respond to a number of issues that have been raised in this debate. First of all, the Watt amendment does not talk about innocence, but uses a word which is much stricter in the law, and that is that the matter…

I rise to speak for the branch that cannot speak for itself, and in that respect it is particularly different from the two other branches.

I thank the Chairman. We must keep them out of the fray, we must keep them from appearing even to be in the fray. There is such a strict sense of ethics in the profession that the judiciary may only come to Congress and testify on limited…

By definition, this area requires a State mandate funded by the State. We certainly would not want to take over State child collection, to do its still-mandated function of collecting support payments from its own citizens to support its…

Mr. Chairman, I recognize that a rhythm has developed here with Republicans voting one way by rote, Democrats perhaps voting another, and I recognize we have come forward with our most favorite issues and I confess and concede that this is…

Because you know that that is the most difficult vote; having been forced now to vote, you want to have an isolated cost vote, a vote that will force debate on cost alone when we could have had the kind of debate we had here anyway…

no district needs an unfunded mandate bill more than mine. We are close to insolvency in part because of mandates. Thoughtless mandates are a regressive tax. But we deserve better than this blunderbuss bill that throws out the baby with…

my thanks to Representative Chris Shays for not giving up on H.R. 1, the Congressional Accountability Act. The gentleman from Connecticut should feel doubly rewarded since this very bill passed the House once before--during the 103d…