Joe Barton: “this is the last evening that I will stand before this body, at least for a while, as chairman of the Energy and…”

“this is the last evening that I will stand before this body, at least for a while, as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and there is still work that I have to do later this evening on several votes that we are still working on with the Senate, and I hadn't intended to speak on this, but I listened to the debate, and I felt compelled that at least one full committee chairman should come and speak in favor of this resolution. I believe there are 18 standing committees of the House of Representatives, and the staff ratios on the committees is two-thirds Republican because we are in the majority and one-third Democrat because they are in the minority. Since the voters spoke in November, those ratios are going to switch. On the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is one of the larger standing committees, right now there are some 60-odd majority Republican staffers and some 30-odd minority Democrat staffers. Well, the Democrats are going to be staffing up, as they should, but it means that about half the Republican staff on the Energy and Commerce Committee is going to have to seek other employment, which is around somewhere between 30 and 35 people. Now, thanks to an agreement with the majority and the minority leadership of this Congress, for the first time we have agreed if this resolution passes to provide up to 2 months of severance pay for the majority staffers that have to be laid off.”