Political Quotes

“as we move forward to the fiscal 1996 legislative branch legislation dealing with the budget, I think it is important to note, Mr. Speaker, that the conference report to the legislative branch appropriations bill, H.R. 1854, ends 40 years of bloated congressional bureaucracy. The bill shows that House Republicans are keeping their word to make Congress less costly and more accountable to the American people. We are doing that by cutting our own spending first before cutting any other Federal programs, with the principle in mind, of course, Mr. Speaker, to make sure that vital services are retained, but where there is duplication and waste, that is removed. By way of recapitulation, Mr. Speaker, let us look to see what has been accomplished. First we have put our own House in order by reducing congressional funding of $207 million below the fiscal year 1995 levels, which was a 9-percent cut. We also eliminated duplicative bureaucracies. The bill eliminates the Office of Technology Assessment, whose functions have already been duplicated by CRS, Congressional Research Service, and GAO, and the National Academy of Sciences. This saves at least $18 million. We downsized bloated bureaucracies. The bill cuts, again, the duplicative Government Accounting Office funding by 17 percent, which will save $75 million. It cuts the number of congressional staff. Some $57 million was cut from House operations, Mr.…”