I would suggest that the reason we are in this tough position is because of the budget that the majority has come forward with and the stingy allocation that it results in for not only this subcommittee, but for all appropriation…

I would like to speak to that issue, because I respectfully disagree that there is anything unclear about the issue or about the agreement associated with the issue that was achieved in the context of the 1999 VA-HUD conference. In that…

Mr. Chairman, I have had the privilege of serving as ranking member of the Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies under the service of our very distinguished and able chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) for a year…

the increases in my amendment are fairly modest. Most programs would still be smaller than they were 6 years ago after adjustment for inflation. Indeed, several, such as housing for the elderly and the disabled, and homeless assistance…

this bill unfortunately represents a series of missed opportunities, and housing is one of the areas in which those missed opportunities are most severe. The amendment I am offering proposes to alleviate some of the most serious shortfalls…

Mr. Chairman, I want to briefly discuss the amendments that the chairman proposes to merge here. I want to begin by expressing my agreement with the premise of these amendments that the Veterans Medical Research account and the State…

I just wanted to cite a statistic that I actually did cite in my remarks to bolster the gentleman's argument, that in this robust economy, that the housing conditions in the HUD report recently completed tells us that there are 5.4 million…

Nearly 70 percent of the electricity generated in the United States today is fueled by a combination of coal, oil and natural gas. These traditional fuels are abundant, particularly coal, which accounts for 90 percent of our Nation's…

Well, reclaiming my time, the Clean Coal Technology Program, one of its real strengths is the conservation of the use of energy to generate electricity. As a matter of fact, the Clean Coal Technology Program has increased efficiency, as I…

I share his concerns on this matter. I would agree that EPA's apparent decoupling of the section 126 petitions from the NOx SIP Call is causing major confusion to industry and State regulators alike, particularly in my State of West…

The point is that the gentleman is operating at the margins of accounts that are underfunded already, so it has dramatic impacts, not only programmatic, but also employment impacts at this point. All of these accounts are underfunded in…

I just rise to commend the gentleman for offering this amendment. I wish it were in order, and I wish the Chair would rule it in order because it joins better than any other amendment or joins better than any other amendment I have heard…

Before I begin, Mr. Chairman, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Speaker and to both the majority and minority leadership for their consideration of my personal circumstances regarding the passing of my father immediately…

I simply want to express my appreciation for the many kind comments that I have heard on the floor today from my colleagues on the passing of my father. I certainly appreciate those sentiments, both those that have been expressed publicly…

as my colleagues today are point out, the latest trade figures are in and they confirm what we feared but also what we expected. They confirm, Mr. Speaker, that the steel dumping crisis is not over. In fact, just the opposite, they confirm…

first let me compliment the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Visclosky), the distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations, for his real leadership in fighting for America's steelworkers and for our American steel industry. What a…

2 weeks ago the Ohio Valley made itself heard here in the Nation's Capital. Thousands of steel workers and their families woke before dawn on a cold damp January day. They came from Weirton, they came from Wheeling, from all across the…

Mr. Speaker, I have made the motion to instruct conferees on the Commerce, Justice, State appropriations bill. In order to make clear that on one this side of the aisle is interested in shutting down the government and to point out that…

I just want to comment on some of the language being used by the opposition. Tony Coehlo. I do not know how Tony Coehlo gets in this debate. I guess if on the merits they do not have anything more to say that they start ad hominem…

I totally agree it is the Congress' job to do that, and we have defined in 13 USC section 141, in pertinent part, the Congress, in this law, has given the Secretary of Commerce the responsibility to conduct a ``decennial census in such…

I simply want to point out here that the only shutdown associated with this issue is the shutdown that is contained in this bill, the shutdown that is threatened by the language which limits the appropriation for census to midyear. That is…

Indeed, the gentleman has referenced the source, the dictionary. Has the gentleman referenced any court decisions on the subject? Mr. Chairman, the real meaning of the Constitution is defined through our court process, through the appeal…

I do not understand the theory of this amendment. As I understood it, we have used these strong negotiations and the leverage of the Committee on Appropriations to effect significant reforms at the United Nations. And while the…

The opponents of a fair and accurate census have implied that both the Inspector General and the GAO have said that the 2000 Census is headed toward failure because of the use of statistical methods. In fact, just the opposite is true. The…

I stood up to support this amendment based upon the new estimates that there would be as much as $60 or $63 million carryover. I hope that that happens, and that that addresses some of the distinguished chairman's thoughts.