I am truly shocked by the gentleman from Virginia's remarks about calling this resolution an innocuous resolution. I think it gets to the crux of the matter of why we wanted to bring this resolution to the floor, to highlight to the…

I think, as I say, my view is that the resolution has drafted, and implicit in that is the fact that it would indeed cover, as the gentleman knows clearly, we are going to consider the benefits that are going to be derived from any…

I want to announce to the Members of the House that the White House has, within the last half hour, turned over a box of documents to my committee, the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, regarding our investigation into the…

Mr. Chairman, the Truth in Budgeting Act is nothing more than an act of keeping faith with the American people. It allows the transportation trust funds to do what they were originally intended to do. The fact that we have to debate and…

as I indicated, this would also go into effect if the President would agree to the balanced-budget agreement.

75 percent of the American people support the line-item veto, and have supported the line-item veto for a long time. It has been suggested that there are a number of reasons why we should not enact this legislation. It has been suggested…

I would indicate that I think a ``yes'' vote on this matter would in effect be saying that we would allow an unfunded mandate to be passed through, or open the door to passing through, an unfunded mandate to the States. Those who would…

Just to briefly say, Mr. Speaker, the President has agreed to the date. Obviously he is confident that he is in fact going to be reelected. I do not share that confidence, but he believes that he will be. Therefore, he is going to have…

I served as chairman of the conference on the line-item veto. It was a difficult, contentious, hotly contested conference. We argued and debated over the issues long and hard. It took us a year, yes, it took us longer than any of us would…

As chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, I am very pleased to rise in strong support of this measure. Two of the provisions in this measure were initiated in the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and we are…

I rise in fervent support of S. 1124, the Department of Defense authorization conference report. I want to commend the chairman... The provisions that are in this bill are consistent with H.R. 1670, the Federal Acquisition Reform Act of…

I want to commend him and the gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] and all of the members of the Committee on National Security for giving us this opportunity to revisit this very, very important bill, the Defense authorization matter…

I would just question the appropriateness of the inspector general making policy in these kinds of areas. It seems to me it is the policymakers of the Department of Defense who really should be paid attention to in this area.

But it does not have to be Defense Department. Mandatory spending is all across the board.

In fact, the offsets can come, when this happens, if the President decides to waive it now, he, under this bill, would be required to provide the offset. We could make it very clear that they were not to be taken out of military spending…

Despite the fact the gentleman opposed my position on title I, I would say what I consider to be a very generous example of noblesse oblige, we are prepared to accept the gentleman's amendment, and I understand that any problems have been…

The gentlewoman makes a very, very strong point. This is one way that we can help preserve the industrial base. If we see that shrink dramatically, it would, in fact, jeopardize us in the event we have hostilities somewhere else in the…

I have to suggest that it is a little more than a minor disagreement. I think that in my view it really goes to the heart of this bill. We have a fundamental disagreement over the impact. I believe, and I hope a majority will believe, that…

many have indicated they would like to be informed as soon as possible in the evaluation process if they had no chance for award in order to save time and expense. We have not heard that firms wish to have their initial proposals, which is…

I think we have had a very thorough debate. We are ready to vote on this matter. It is clear, there is a significant difference between us on this major issue. I would point out one thing: The gentlewoman from Illinois said not one word…

There is no bar to anybody who is, as my colleague knows, anyone can get in and bid on these Government procurements.

The concept of the lockbox is very simple. It makes basic common sense. In essence it provides that amendments to cut spending actually produce savings. I think I was as dismayed as many people to realize that when we often go through…

Mr. Chairman, this bill, the Federal Acquisition Reform Act of 1995, is an important piece of legislation, which the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Spence], chairman of the Committee on National Security, and I introduced along with…

That is absolutely untrue. What we are saying is that the procurement officials, very front and center, they are very much on the front line of the decisions that they make, are going to be given a little more flexibility, a little more…