Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I guess there is a series of amendments like this.

It is well known that we have a huge deficit out here. Obviously, one way to deal with a deficit is to make sure that the appropriations bills are not excessive.

We are approaching borrowing 20 percent of the Federal budget. That is just almost beyond belief.

We just got done with an amendment in which some people out there felt we weren't spending enough on community block grants, which is appalling. I am much more in line with President Trump's opinion of that. I don't think we should be increasing things at this time.

This amendment is a modest amendment. Rather than having decreases-- which, of course, we should have--we are taking a 4.6 percent across- the-board cut on this overall provision.

I realize it touches a variety of programs. We are still allowing a 2 percent increase. Quite frankly, I think a 2 percent increase here is more than enough, but what I do here is I propose a 4.6 percent across- the-board reduction.

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I didn't come here to debate the tax cut, but I will point out one more time that the Republicans who voted against the tax cut did so at the request of the wealthier taxpayers in given States who felt that the tax cut unnecessarily didn't help the wealthier members of society.

As far as the other things that were rattled off, the State of Wisconsin right now is running a significant surplus, unlike the Federal Government that continues to borrow substantially. Fiscally, if anybody should be increasing spending on these programs, it should be the States, not the Federal Government.

Not to mention our Constitution--the gentleman rattles off a lot of things that really have nothing to do with interstate commerce and nothing to do with the Federal Government. We not only should be not increasing these programs, but we should be cutting them.

Again, my amendment still allows a 2 percent increase. When I go back home and explain it to the folks, I think the major thing they will be saying is, ``Grothman, why are you so generous as to give a 2 percent increase?''

I have no problem saying this amendment is responsible. On the floor, I will probably wind up voting for other amendments that have greater reductions than this.

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