John Spratt

the resolution that the White House has sent us is a decided improvement over the original draft, but it could be better. If the amendment that I am offering is adopted, I believe that this resolution could draw even more votes and pass…

Mr. Speaker, this is about the most important part of the campaign for the revolution, the revolution in the South, where the revolution was largely won after the fall of Charleston in the back country. The whole matter has been…

this amendment is very basic. What it does is it takes blanket immunity which is added to this bill and replaces it with selective indemnity. The bill as it stands would exonerate contractors who provide all kinds of equipment, gear and…

this conference report does far more than just give the President fast track authority. Packed into these 400 pages is something called the Andean Trade Promotion Act, and if you come from textile country, this is no trivial matter. These…

few would question the goals of H.R. 4946. Most of us see the need to provide assistance to those burdened by the costs of long-term care. However, once again we are approaching an issue with fiscal impact in a vacuum, without a plan to…

just 18 short months ago, OMB and Treasury both told us that there would be no need to raise the debt ceiling for at least 7 years, not until 2008. OMB told us that they foresaw surpluses coming that would total $5.6 trillion over the next…

this program will go from today's modest level to $510 million in just 10 years. When it gets to that level, it is going to crowd out and preclude something else. The ABL, on the other hand, the airborne laser, needs money to buy, number…

this amendment would take $30 million out of the space-based kinetic intercept program, leaving $14 or $15 million for concept definition, which is the status of it anyway, and instead, shift that $30 million to another program, a vitally…

we all know the circumstances last year when we voted to repeal temporarily the estate tax. OMB was predicting a surplus of $5.6 trillion over the next 10 years. Today that surplus is gone, vanished, thanks to tax cuts, terrorists and…

Mr. Chairman, the debate we have before us is about a supplemental spending bill, but it is not about supplemental spending for the war on terrorism, not this debate. When it comes to fighting terrorism, we are not going to be stinting…

if I could simply ask, am I wrong? I believe the $343 million is exactly what CBO scored it as, and number 2, does this really save anything? If this is just an obligational delay that says that the money cannot be obligated during the…

it is my understanding that CBO has scored this particular provision as saving temporarily for this fiscal year $343 million, that is all, under the Credit Reform Act. It is not the full amount of the loan. It is the likely loss on the…

CBO scored it, I have a letter and I put it in the Record, at $343 million. That is the accurate scoring for this, and that is the question I am raising. For that sum of money, why put U.S. Airways flying into jeopardy?

Mr. Speaker, when Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative, he made a wise decision. He decided that SDI should be non-nuclear, and he did it for good reason. SDI was not the genesis of missile defense. President Johnson had…

Mr. Speaker, let us vote to affirm Ronald Reagan's wisdom. Let us win one for the Gipper. Vote ``aye'' for nonnuclear missile defense.

I thank the gentleman for these clarifications. Therefore, the gentleman's amendment would prohibit funding for the space-based ballistic missile defense interceptors, $54 million is requested, but it would not affect sensors at all.

So, specifically, your amendment would not prohibit or affect funding for what we call SBIRS-High, space-based infrared sensors, SBIRS-High or SBIRS-Low sensor programs like this?

Mr. Chairman, I would have been opposed to the amendment as of yesterday, but we have had a work in progress here and I must say we have come up with a very good effort. I commend the gentleman for his efforts. I think he has a good bill…

I have an amendment included among the en bloc amendments which was specifically requested by the Department of Defense. In fact, the idea for this amendment arose at a breakfast we had with Secretary Rumsfeld at which there were…

I support this bill, but I think an admonition about the budget is in order. We actually have one bill before us, while holding another in abeyance. The President requested a total of $396 billion for national security, primarily for the…

I rise to commend both the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Tauscher) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) for reaching agreement on what I think is a good amendment to an amendment. Basically the Nuclear Posture Review raised…

the critical vote came first. It was the vote to bypass the budget and do away with the rules that have served us well for the last 10 years. They moved the budget out of deep deficit into big surpluses. Now, with those rules out of the…

I simply want to point out that the budget resolution brought to the floor by the House Republicans last month provided only $77 billion in tax cuts over the next 5 years. The President is calling for $675 billion in tax cuts over the next…

We know that 1.7 million taxpayers last year had to deal with the AMT, the Alternative Minimum Tax. We know from the Treasury Department over the next 10 years that number will grow to 39 million taxpayers, mostly middle income Americans…

I will show the gentleman the disparity between the budget on the floor today and the President's budget, and the reason we said this budget we are voting on today is not a real budget. When the President sent up his budget, he asked for…