Mark Neumann: “I rise today. First I would like to commend the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations for sticking to our core…”

“I rise today. First I would like to commend the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations for sticking to our core principles, that 3 years ago we made a commitment that we were going to stop spending our children's money, and I would like to commend the chairman for sticking to those principles in this bill and sticking to the offsets. We understand the other body, the Senate, has not proposed offsets yet, and I would also like to express my appreciation for accepting the Neumann-McIntosh amendment that puts this body on record when we pass this bill, saying that when it goes to conference it should come back with the offsets intact. I would also like to do, as I made it my custom to do over the last 3 years, to report to my colleagues what the actual numbers are in this spending bill. The total new spending, the total, quote, emergency spending in this bill, is $2.865 billion in outlays and budget authority, and in fact the offsets amount to 1 million more than what the proposed new spending is as it relates to budget authority. In outlays, the outlays are $350 million short, but I would add that it is the closest that we have come of any of the supplemental appropriation bills that have passed through this body since we came here in 1995. It is the closest we have come to offsetting it in outlays as well as budget authority, and again in budget authority, to my colleagues, it is not only offset but there is actually $1 million extra in it.”