Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, first, let me thank the chairman for the job he has done over the last 6 years of leading this committee. It is a difficult job.

We have to make tough choices, and this committee has been willing to do this. I appreciate the leadership that the chairman and Ranking Member Lowey have provided for this committee and for the direction in which we have been able to go.

Let me say also, Mr. Speaker, that I don't really like what we are doing here. I don't think anybody on the Appropriations Committee likes what we are doing here. We all know it is necessary because we don't want the government to shut down, but it is amazing to listen to the number of people who come on the floor. I know all of the Appropriations Committee members want to get back to regular order and do individual bills, conference them, and then do individual conference reports of all of the bills. That is what should be done. That is called regular order. The last time that was done was in 1994; 22 years ago. Under Republican and Democrat leadership, we have not been able to do it in the last 22 years, and it is time we do. It is amazing the number of people who come to the floor and who aren't on the Appropriations Committee who say, Man, we need to get back to regular order.

We all agree with that.
So how do we do it?

I will tell you how we do it. It takes a commitment. It takes a commitment of Republican and Democratic leadership that, if you are going to have open rules, which is when any amendment can be offered--a lot of these appropriations bills come to the floor, and we have 100 or 150 amendments offered--they take a lot of time to pass. That is okay, but we have got to have a commitment that we are going to spend the time on the floor to do these appropriations bills. We are willing to do that, but it takes a commitment from leadership that we are going to have the floor time.

We used to have a time when, all during the month of June and the first of July, it was called appropriations season. We were here for 6 weeks in a row, 5 days a week--sometimes until very late at night and early in the morning--doing the appropriations bills. We don't do that anymore. We have a new schedule because the district work period is very important also, and I understand that for a lot of Members. At about every third week, we go home and do work in our districts. That time is important, but we are elected to do a job. We have got to be in Washington, and we have got to be on the floor, and we have got to be debating these bills if we want to get back to regular order. We act as if it comes down from on high that, geez, this just can't happen, like it is not in our control. It is in our control. We on both sides of the aisle need to make a commitment that we will get back to regular order and do individual appropriations bills because that is the way this place is supposed to work.

I thank the chairman for all of the job and all of the effort that he and Ranking Member Lowey have done to bring us back to regular order to the extent we can, and, hopefully, we will keep moving forward.

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