Alan Simpson: “This is kind of a hard one because I have to tell you, in all honesty, I agree with the gentleman. There are too many…”

“This is kind of a hard one because I have to tell you, in all honesty, I agree with the gentleman. There are too many programs that are not authorized. Unfortunately, it is not the Committee on Appropriations' responsibility. It is the authorizing committees that haven't been doing their job. It is not the EIA's fault that they are not reauthorized. It is that Congress has not done their job in reauthorizing them. As the gentleman has stated, there are many, many programs throughout. I think the whole Department of State is up for reauthorization and hasn't been reauthorized. The gentleman is absolutely right. We need to do something about that. We have been debating and discussing how exactly you do that. We have had various proposals. In fact, members of our Conference are looking at it now. I know Mr. McClintock is very interested in doing this. We have talked about it several times. We are trying to find some way to force the authorizing committees to actually do their job and do the reauthorizations that are necessary. But I rise to oppose this amendment. The amendment proposes to eliminate funding for the Energy Information Administration, a semi- independent agency that collects, analyzes, and disseminates impartial energy statistics and information to the Nation. The EIA performs essential work for understanding the electricity generation and energy consumption in the complex energy markets that make up our Nation.…”