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

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…

Mr. Speaker, on February 6 of this year the House passed H.R. 2, to give the President the line-item veto. The Senate followed suit in adopting S. 4, a separate enrollment version of item veto which was both considerably weaker than the…

It strikes me there are analogies here to the Great Lakes initiative where we have had some indication what the cost might be, but the costs became wildly beyond anybody's wildest dreams what it might actually involve. At any rate, Mr…

I think that for the first time we are really going to have some consideration for what are the compliance costs, what does it cost to carry out the number of the mandates that we have had in the past, but I think that the environmental…

The conference report is intended to clarify that it is the intent of Congress that section 3512 requires agency information collection requests applicable to 10 or more members of the public to be submitted to OMB and receive a valid…

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to bring to the floor today the conference agreement on the reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act. It is the first reauthorization since the act expired in 1989. The House version, I would remind my…

as I stated the day the Government Reform and Oversight Committee favorably reported this bill, I believe the district of Columbia will today move one step closer to self-sufficiency, to financial independence, perhaps even to true home…

To this extent, if the gentleman will yield, the gentleman understands that this is only prospective in its application. In other words, we are not, in effect, looking back at all of the cornerstones of environmental legislation, clean…

It is a historic moment; the first conference report from a Republican-controlled Congress in 40 years. And I agree with the gentleman from California, it is significant. This bill will ensure that Congress and Federal agencies have more…

State and local governments can sleep safer tonight because we are about to put the menace of unfunded mandates behind lock and key. Congress has recognized, on a bipartisan basis, that its penchant for passing the costs of programs on to…

I think this is a historic piece of legislation. It is going to be the first step in reordering the relationship between Federal and State and local governments. It is going to substantially restructure that relationship and, I think…

Let me say I commend the gentleman for the contribution he made to this bill because he did, took a great interest and had a very helpful contribution. We were unfortunately unable to sustain all of his amendments in the conference report…

Reauthorization, if there are no additional new mandates imposed as a result of a reauthorization of an existing program, it would have no effect at all. It is only where there would be an additional or added mandate that would exceed the…

to close, I yield myself such time as I may consume, to say to the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Tauzin], I think this is a very thoughtful and helpful addition to the debate we are having on this matter. I do think it goes to far…

I rise in support to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, as I indicated before the gentleman offered his amendment, we have examined the amendment and want to commend the gentleman, frankly, on his willingness to open up his own appropriations…

that may well be true, but I am suggesting to the gentleman that we are not blameless in this exercise of deficit reduction. As I indicated to the gentleman, we had an event in 1992, where an effort was made to try and deal with 1996…

But I think fundamentally we have a philosophic difference over how tight this provision should be. What we are saying is we want to make it as difficult as possible, as difficult as possible, for this House, which has proven in the past…

I am suggesting that the Congress, and I think we can apportion the blame on both sides, there has been an inability under existing procedures, certainly under the existing empowerment procedure for us to really effect cuts in spending…

We have a guarantee you get a vote. There is no such guarantee in the gentleman's amendment, because it could be waived.

the statutory line-item veto proposed in H.R. 2 is broader and stronger, as we have heard in general debate, than a constitutional amendment. It fulfills the President's request that we give him the strongest possible bill, which is what…

Mr. Chairman, this month we have taken the historic steps toward requiring government to live within its own means by passing the balanced budget amendment. Today we have before us another tool to cut spending, the line-item veto. Many of…

I think it is a harbinger of that which is a historic piece of legislation which when we enact it, as we will, will complete the second installment on the Republican Contract With America. Together with the balanced budget amendment and…

the purpose, I want to reemphasize, is to make it very clear that it was our intent that the President not be able to look beyond statutory or report language. That is the absolute limit as to what he is able to look at or impact. There…

Mr. Chairman, I do so to commend the gentlewoman for her amendment. There have been points made here today that we were going to be ceding too much power to the President, and that we should in some way limit that. I think what this…