On the recordDecember 17, 2015
I thank the chairman for the recognition. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this funding bill for 2016. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, I want to highlight some of the areas that I think are important for Members to understand. We oversee, in the subcommittee, a myriad of agencies; all have an impact on our functioning Federal Government and also on the constituents that we represent. We oversee and fund the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Small Business Administration, and many other agencies. I think that while we, overall, fund this section of the bill $1 billion less than the President requested, there are some areas where we increase funding that are important, that are priorities, like law enforcement and drug abuse prevention. There has been a lot of discussion about the IRS over the years, and, quite frankly, they have betrayed the trust of the American people and have a long way to go to restore that trust; therefore, they are funded at a flat level. However, we give them additional money to try to do a better job of customer service. {time} 1415 They can't answer the phone and they can't respond to mail, so they have additional dollars to improve that. We do other things to rein in some of their out-of-control activities. Overall, Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill.…
