the D.C. appropriation has just passed this House after 4 very arduous months. The concern that I have had all along relates to the financial condition of the District. As I have seen what has happened to this city, I have not been able to…

As we approach the fifth month of the fiscal year, the appropriation of the District has finally come to the floor. This is the first time in more than 200 years that the D.C. appropriation has been so late. The subcommittee was prepared…

my mother always said, ``Do not let me have to tell you twice.'' We heard you, Moody's. We do not need to hear from Standard & Poor's, too. We need to respond that we are not the kamikaze Congress. The markets actually responded positively…

I intend for my few minutes to be devoted to proving that proposition. Her presence was so awesome that she is likely to be remembered more for her voice and her style than for her substance. That would be just too bad. For in this world…

with the talk now about whether we shall have clean or, shall we say, dirty CR's or debt limit bills, I would like to offer some views that go to the intent of the Framers. We need to think through this process, for we are engaged in…

in this body not a day goes by that we do not deify the military. Yet in this bill is a provision that would leave a woman stranded, while serving her country, without medical care, if the medical care she happens to need is a legal…

the only thing more reckless than a Government shutdown is talk of default, and I mean talk. Talk alone on this subject is playing with fire. Secretary Rubin is accused of bluffing. The real question is are we bluffing? The market opened…

it may well be that in the 20th day of this crisis we are too close to it, have been too immersed in it to think clearly our way out of it. It is actually 25 days, if you consider the 5 days of the previous shutdown. Let us look at what we…

nobody was home on the other side of the aisle last year when the President pressed health care reform as the only way to contain runaway costs. Suddenly Republicans have discovered the cost side of his equation, but it will not balance…

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 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…

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.

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…

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…

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…