There is one agency in the Federal Government that knows all its programs. Only one. The Department of Education. They actually publish it every year. They actually have done a great job. I compliment them. Not one other Federal agency…

Would the Senator, through the Chair, take a question? Does the Senator know the number of agencies in the Federal Government that actually know how many programs they have in their agency?

I thank the chairman and the ranking member for the time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.

If we would simply do our job, we would not have to have tax increases, we would not have to have spending cuts that will gut our military, although I can show a lot of waste in the military too, to the tune of $50 billion a year. But if…

Nobody in their right mind will agree that what we are doing is smart, efficient, effective, and associated with common sense. But yet when it comes to doing the hard work of oversight and eliminating these duplications, nobody in the…

First of all, I wish to thank the chairman of the Budget Committee for bringing a budget to the floor. It is great that we have done it. We know the outcome of this budget vote already. The final budget vote will not come until sometime in…

with a lot of consternation, we are worried about how the sequester affects everybody--the Defense Department and all the other agencies. But in fact the Pentagon spends $67 billion on things that have absolutely nothing to do with…

if there is no opposition, nobody on my side wishes to speak. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

first of all, I ask unanimous consent to use oversized charts. I don't actually like to use oversized charts, but I cannot get all the information I need to present on one regular chart because I am looking at one subject area. The…

there are no tricks in this. All we are trying to do is reverse what was done inappropriately. There is no question we need to do some adjustment on wages. That is for another time when we actually try to save Medicare. This amendment…

I understand what the Senator from Louisiana is trying to do, but it goes toward the bigger problems of GSA. I will give you a great example. In my hometown they are building a brand new U.S. Attorney's Office with four other sites that…

this is a simple vote. The Postal Service lost $15.8 billion last year. Political parties contributed to that loss by our getting a discount on all of our mail. All this will do is put us at the same rate as everybody else commercially in…

3\1/2\ years ago we instructed the GAO to tell us where the government problems were, what are the government programs, and where was there duplication. We have yet to pass one piece of legislation that would eliminate any of the…

I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment is as follows: (Purpose: To prohibit Urban Area Security Initiative grant recipients from funding…

I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be set aside and amendment No. 93 be called up. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Oklahoma…

I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and amendment No. 69 be called up. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from…

This is where we should be doing our work. We should be making choices for the American people. We should be making the hard choices that say this is more important than this. We don't have enough money. We are borrowing $40 million a…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Amendment No. 69 to Amendment No. 26

I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The amendment is as follows: After section 573 of title V of division D, insert the following: Sec. 574. Fourteen…

the average age of the heritage areas in this bill is 16 years. If you look at the original authorization, none of them was supposed to get any Federal money now. As a matter of fact, the Senator's heritage area has planned and raised the…

I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be set aside and amendment No. 65, with modifications, at the desk be called up. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator…

I want to comment a minute, before I talk about the individual amendments, on the process we have seen. We are going to have several amendments, and this is well in excess of $1 trillion in spending. We have had four amendments voted on…

we cannot ever get answers

The country needs this laboratory to protect its agriculture industry.

it has turned into an all-hazards agency, which was never its intent