Conference Report on H.R. 3058, Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent...
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3058, TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - November 18, 2005)
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, today we consider the conference report on the Treasury, Transportation, HUD bill. That in and of itself is a remarkable achievement, given that in recent years the tendency has been to circumvent the established appropriation process.
I want to commend Chairman Knollenberg and Ranking Democrat Olver for working diligently and cooperatively on a bill that is profoundly important to every American. We have seen much conflict over the last few days, and it is, I think, a happy event that we can come to the floor and be supportive of a bill that was worked on in a bipartisan, cooperative way; and I think that is a testament to Mr. Knollenberg and to Mr. Olver, and thanks to them as well.
Now, they would agree, and we all agree, this is not a perfect conference report, hardly any conference report is, and there are limited resources. Critical social programs are hurt. Public housing, Hope VI, people with AIDS, rural housing and economic development, Community Development Block Grants, brownfields, and the HOME program all face, frankly, fewer resources than I would hope they would have. But that is the reality of the dollars that were given to Mr. Knollenberg and Mr. Olver to deal with.
I am pleased that the transportation bill report includes an adjustment for our Federal civilian employees in their cost of living consistent with the pay adjustment proposed for the military personnel. It is essential that we provide this adjustment as recognition of the contribution made by both Federal civilian employees and military personnel to the safety and security of the Nation. It also allows us to recruit and indeed retain those that we need to carry out important and vital services for our citizens.
I am also pleased that the President's request for the FDA consolidation is in this bill. These funds will go a long way in helping to relocate FDA employees from their current substandard facilities into modern, state-of-the-art facilities.
I am enormously grateful, and I want to say this publicly, I have said it privately, to Chairman Knollenberg for his leadership in making possible reimbursement to small business people who operated small airports and, for security reasons, were shut down by the Federal Government and sustained substantial losses. We have been working on this for many years, and Mr. Knollenberg and Mr. Olver have now ensured that we resolve this, and I thank the chairman for that. The failure to provide these small businessmen with compensation in the years past has caused great difficulty, and this will be a welcome addition to this bill.
I also want to commend the conferees for withstanding pressure from the White House, including the Bond-Mikulski reform provision, which will correct fundamental flaws in the contracting-out provisions. Simply put, the provision will eliminate waste and save taxpayer money while, at the same time, preserving appropriate competition by employees with the private sector to get the most efficient and effective results for our taxpayers.
I want to close by saying that I am concerned about what I believe to be one very significant provision that is not in this bill, or funding that is not in this bill. As the sponsor of the Help America Vote Act with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), and it was overwhelmingly supported on this side, Senator McConnell and Senator Dodd on the Senate side, strong support, we promised the States some $3.8 billion in funding. We have given $3 billion to get our technology up to date, to ensure that every voter has access to the polls, that our registration rolls are up to date and accurate, that no American is precluded from voting because of inefficiencies in the registration system, and we required the States to have statewide registration systems, a centralized database so that no Marylander, no Massachusetts resident, no Michigander would be shut out of the process because they were not properly included on the rolls.
That is an expensive process, and the States are required to have it in place by January 1 of 2006. We have shortchanged them to this date $800 million of the promised $3.8 billion. Mr. Speaker, $3 billion is a large sum of money; but when you spread it throughout 50 States, it diminishes.
Mr. Speaker, I would hope that we could work together with the White House that has been helpful in the past and Speaker Hastert, who has been very helpful in the past; Mr. Obey and Mr. Olver have both been helpful in making sure that next year we can work with the administration to try to get this funding at the level that it really ought to be, because that is what we promised the States and, but for that, it will be an unfunded mandate.
So, again, in closing, I thank the chairman, I thank Mr. Olver, Mr. Obey and Mr. Lewis for working together to bring this bill to the floor, and I will certainly be supportive.
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