I was, frankly, disappointed that they called for mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes of damaging critical infrastructure computers because mandatory minimums have been found to waste the taxpayers' money, do nothing about crime…

That is why I introduced the Youth PROMISE Act which I know the Attorney General is supportive of, and to provide this kind of evidence based and cost saving program and to get young people on the right track and keep them on the right…

Thank you, Mr. Gohmert. Good morning, I am pleased to join you this morning for this very important oversight hearing on the Office of Justice Programs...

How often are judges following the sentencing guidelines? The answer is in over 80% of the time.

the decision did not create a problem that needs fixing--that Booker in fact was the fix, not the problem, and our response should be don't just do something, stand there.

The decision did not create a problem that needs fixing. Booker WAS the fix--not the problem.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mandatory guidelines they are unconstitutional.

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to support H.R. 2189, the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2011. The bill would require local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies to report to the Department of…

I would like to bring that up because the legislation that we considered earlier today had a provision that required a constitutional amendment that is mislabeled. It is called the Balanced Budget Amendment. Well, if you look at the…

Thank you very much, and I appreciate your doing this. As our friend from New York has said, we need to be focused on jobs. The other side of the aisle is quick to say that you cannot raise taxes in the middle of an economic downturn, and…

On that point, if we do nothing and let them expire--we're not talking about new tax cuts--if we just let them expire, we have enough deficit reduction on the table to match Simpson- Bowles.

It's in that context that the actions of this Congress have to be taken into consideration because last December we passed an $800 billion, 2-year tax cut--not new tax cuts--extending the ones that were there. {time} 1930 Had we let them…

Well, the Arizona State capitol was sold and leased back. So there's no telling what they might want to do. But the really regrettable part of this is the process that we're in. Because we just passed a bill that provides for trillions of…

And I couldn't figure out how they have done it over the past few years. I figured there must be something in there. So we Googled it, thanks to Google. And we found out. The first thing I found out is, with 6.3 million people, they got…

This rule provides for debate of legislation that was slapped together behind closed doors, providing for trillions of dollars in unspecified cuts. The final version was sprung on the House after being made public just this morning, and…

We're talking about being serious. And here we're considering a $2 trillion bill, $200 billion a year, slapped together behind closed doors and sprung on the House less than 24 hours after it was printed, an up-or-down vote, no amendments…

It does not require a balanced budget. What it does is require a three-fifths vote to pass a budget that is not unbalanced. Every budget we consider this year was not in balance the first year. So the Ryan budget that passed would have…

There are four provisions. The first is you need three-fifths to pass a budget. That's going to make it harder to pass a budget. The second provision is a two-thirds vote to raise taxes. So, if you're trying to balance a budget, having a…

What would he do? What would the Republicans have supported him doing to reduce the deficit? Would they have supported increased taxes? What spending are they talking about with specificity?

Legislation is about choices. I mean, if you want a Head Start program, you've got to pay for it. If you want clean water grants, you've got to pay for them. We need to be making these choices, not in the context of threats about blowing…

In terms of jobs, much has been said about the reason why you would not want to increase taxes in an economic downturn. Because you would adversely effect the economy. That's true. But if you have spending cuts, the effect on the economy…

I thank the gentlelady for yielding. If we are going to talk about how bad the budget situation is now, I think it makes sense to explain how we got here. First, in the early 1990s, the budget had gone totally out of whack. The first…

I demand a recorded vote. A recorded vote was ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 234, noes 190, not voting 8, as follows: [Roll No. 606] AYES--234…

I oppose this legislation, and I would like to focus my comments on the balanced budget amendment because the dirty little secret about the balanced budget amendment is that it does not require a balanced budget. {time} 1830 It will…