Ron Kind: “I rise as one of the leaders of the new Democratic Coalition in strong support of this resolution. And I commend my two…”

“I rise as one of the leaders of the new Democratic Coalition in strong support of this resolution. And I commend my two good friends from Tennessee and California for bringing this resolution before us and for the leadership that they have consistently shown on all matters pertaining to fiscal responsibility in this place. This legislation is the proverbial disinfectant that we are in desperate need of. By systematically requiring the committees of jurisdiction to periodically hold hearings in order to identify and root out waste, fraud and abuse and mismanagement in the Federal agencies and with the Federal programs, it's an important step for us to get our fiscal house in order. This is a bipartisan problem, and it's going to require a bipartisan solution for it. So I'm encouraged that our friends across the aisle also see the need and the necessity to move forward in this systematic fashion to deal with it. This, coupled with President-elect Obama's decision to create and to appoint a chief performance officer in the White House, I feel, is a good, 1, 2 punch in order to root out some of the redundancy and excess waste and abuse that takes place with Federal programs. But we should also be clear that this is a first step of many steps that we will have to take to get our fiscal house in order.”