William Orton: “Mr. Chairman, as a cosponsor of this bipartisan amendment, I am pleased to join my colleagues, the gentleman from…”

“Mr. Chairman, as a cosponsor of this bipartisan amendment, I am pleased to join my colleagues, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Klug] and the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss], in offering this amendment to eliminate funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission. Let us be clear about what this amendment is all about. If we cannot eliminate programs like the Appalachian Regional Commission, we are sending a clear message to the American public that we are not serious about eliminating duplicative Federal programs, and we will be sending a message that we are not serious about ending old-fashioned pork-barrel programs that benefit narrow geographical interests. That is why both the National Taxpayers' Union and Citizens Against Government Waste have endorsed this amendment. Earlier this year the Committee on the Budget, which I sit on, passed a resolution that proposed the termination of the Appalachian Regional Commission in the next fiscal year. To quote from the committee report, it says, There is little evidence that the ARC can be credited with improvements in the economic health of Appalachia.”