I want to say a word about something that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) mentioned, this business of the mounted police on the Capitol. I wholly agree with the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) and the chairman. I do not think…

Today I would like to give some recognition to the passing of a man we have heard of. I think the movie ``On The Waterfront'' was one of the finest American movies ever made because of the ability of Marlon Brando to depict that heroic…

how nice it would be if we could come up with a magic bullet to all of a sudden fix our fiscal crisis, but it is not that easy. It certainly is not going to be fixed by radical proposals like this. I say radical because this would cut…

I do not know what is happening to this institution. We work a couple of days a week. We cannot even get a budget resolution passed. It is overdue by months, and then we get these amendments that are really designed to eliminate the…

the principles that were articulated by President Bush in his April letter to Mr. Sharon can be seen as a first step in finding a resolution to the Israeli Palestinian dispute. This resolution demonstrates that Congress's position is…

Not after it was competitively bid when all of the factors were legitimately considered.

If, for example, this amendment passed, can the gentleman see any legal way that you can turn around and award the bid to either of the other two competitor companies?

I agree in principle with my good friends on the other side of this issue. I agree with my good friend, the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), that it was wrong what Stanley Works did to leave Connecticut, to save some tax money…

may I ask the gentleman, he was a counsel to a contractor at one point in his life. Can he imagine how we would ever rebid this to either of the other two bidders now that they know all of the specifications that the government was looking…

Mr. Chairman, every minute, the Bush administration spends $991,000 more than it takes in, basically $1 million in deficit every single minute. We have lost control of the budget; and this is not going to give us control, even though this…

I do feel motivated to respond to my friend from Iowa's comments. I am sure it was not he that suggested there is hypocrisy on our side, but I want to make the record clear, because 2 weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats voted 187 to 10…

I thank my friend and the leader of our caucus for his statement. This is a very important issue, not just to those who represent large numbers of Federal employees but to the entire American people. We are talking about adequately…

Most military retirees die before their spouses; and to deal with this situation, they pay extra money in for what is called spousal benefits. With the Federal civilian retiree system, retirees' spouses get 55 percent of their pay. For…

I respond because the chairman of the committee suggested that this is about a political insurance policy. Political insurance policy? We are trying to find the money for an insurance policy to protect the lives of American citizens. Let…

the House Committee on the Budget had a hearing yesterday with the Congressional Budget Office. So it was about numbers, and normally numbers are boring and benign, but this laid out a nightmare scenario. When President Bush took office…

There is a provision in this bill that says that all of the records of firearm purchases have to be destroyed within 24 hours. Now, we know that there have been more than 3,500 firearms purchased by people who should not have purchased…

earlier this month marked the anniversary of the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. A true man of peace, his life was tragically cut short during a rally for peace in Tel Aviv. Yitzak Rabin was a hero dedicated to the…

this clearly is a better bill than we received from the White House. It specifies that money has to be used for Kevlar jackets, for example, for the jamming devices. There is no question but that there are improvements. What this…

I do not know, but I do not think that any Member of Congress has a son or a daughter actually serving in Iraq. If they do, I hope we hear about it. But if we did, I trust that our fatherly love would trump our political loyalties. But…

we have said it many times, we need to restate it, though, apparently, again, there is no question between the debating sides here whether Saddam Hussein was a tyrant. The world is far better off without him. And we are glad he is gone. We…

The Bush administration is still incapable or unwilling to articulate a coherent and workable underlying strategy to accomplish our mission and bring our troops home. Since the power of the purse remains the only effective means that we in…

I rise, regretfully, to say that I have a problem with this legislation. But my issue is not with title I or title II of the conference agreement, the legislative branch appropriations bill. I do not have any problem with that…

this is a terribly important issue. We have to ask ourselves, have we no shame? This is the people's House, where we have provided trillions of dollars to the very wealthiest families in America, those who need it the least, and yet have…

I appreciate all of the rhetoric that we are getting on how much the majority likes military families, but they have to put their money where their mouth is. The fact is that that sergeant, that E-6 sergeant who makes less than a third of…

This is not a security threat. We know everybody that is on these planes, and they are the last people that would engage in any kind of terrorism. It is a much safer passenger list, I have to say, than the normal population that gets on a…