Darlene Hooley: “when I watched the 104th Congress--the partisanship and the petty games--I was sickened. I was frustrated by the…”

“when I watched the 104th Congress--the partisanship and the petty games--I was sickened. I was frustrated by the willingness of a Congress to shut down the entire Federal Government for political gain; and I was frustrated by the proliferation of environmental riders that were attached to spending bills; and I was frustrated by the attacks of that Congress on public education. Mr. Speaker, we started this Congress on a different note. I am proud of the bipartisan balanced budget that we passed last year, and I had hoped that we could do that again this year. However, I am deeply disappointed by the process that has been provided for the consideration of this bill. We will vote shortly on a bill to fund over half of the Federal Government. It combines 8 funding bills into 1, and is over 4,000 pages long. And it is a bill that few people, if anyone, has read entirely. In fact, most Members have been granted only a brief glimpse at the text and have gained most of their information second hand. And we're at this point because this Congress failed to draft a budget document and to pass the customary 13 appropriations bills. But while the process has been fundamentally flawed, I will support the passage of this bill today. To my constituents, it is critical that we maintain the operations of the Federal Government; * * * that we keep channeling the money to our schools, to our farmers, to health care research, and to building transportation systems.…”