Jim Sensenbrenner: “it is easy to say you're in favor of balancing the budget. Congress has been saying it for years. But, until recently…”

“it is easy to say you're in favor of balancing the budget. Congress has been saying it for years. But, until recently, those of us who are willing to follow the words with actions have not had enough votes to bring the budget under control. Now, we do. Actions speak louder than words, and this body has proven it. We made the tough choices and passed a balanced budget resolution, only to be confronted with an administration that wants to put those choices off and some colleagues who say they want to balance the budget as long as they don't have to cut any programs. The majority of us still have responsibility for putting the Government on a path to fiscal responsibility. We still have to make those hard calls. In the area of civil science, H.R. 3322 does that. In our civil space program, this bill represents a savings of $308.7 million dollars from the President's request. It preserves and strengthens NASA's historic focus and contributions in basic science areas, such as astronomy, astrophysics, aerodynamics, life, and microgravity sciences. It reduces those programs which amount to commercial welfare, and restructures programs, such as Mission to Planet Earth, that bust the President's own NASA budget in the outyears. The administration abdicated its responsibility to maintain programs consistent with available resources when he sent two sets of books up here last month. He left the tough choices for Congress to make. We made them.”