President's Budget Proposals for Fiscal Year 2004

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank Director Daniels for being here today, and tell you that I believe the president and OMB deserve a lot of credit for this budget that you've laid out. As you pointed out at the outset, this isn't about just numbers, this is about priorities, this is really about values and I think you've done a good job of laying out what those values are, what those priorities should be, and challenging those who would criticize this budget to come up with some alternative. I think we've heard some of those mentioned today that I personally would support like tax increases, but that's the debate we ought to be having and I appreciate your work and your office's work.

I'm particularly pleased to see that the administration remains committed to restraining the growth of federal spending, and I happen to have a different point of view from Senator Conrad, for example, on the effect of the tax cuts, and believe that really the primary culprit for the situation we find ourselves in today is spending increases that range up to 10.8 percent increase in the year 2000.

But we've seen some pretty much lack of any restraint whatsoever on the part of the federal government when it comes spending money during good times, and now when our income and our revenue is dramatically decreased, as it was in 2002 with a 7 percent decrease in federal revenue because of the circumstances you have summarized for us, it calls for restraint, I believe, and I think the president's proposal of a 4 percent growth, not a cut, in around nowhere else I've ever been would somebody consider a reduction in growth a real cut except in Washington DC, but the president's budget proposals are a modest 4 percent growth in the federal budget and spending restraints that would allow us to hopefully deal in a responsible fashion with the unfortunate set of circumstances we find ourselves confronted with today.

I really just have two questions I want to ask. I'm very supportive of the president's plans to improve government performance and make it more accountable to the public when it comes to how tax dollars are actually spent by the federal government, by reducing waste and inefficiency and making sure that taxpayers really get a bang for their buck. Could you summarize this briefly for us here, what does this year's evaluation reveal about the performance of the federal government when it comes to spending tax dollars in a responsible way and being accountable to the public we all serve?

SEN. CORNYN: I appreciate the administration's effort to begin to provide that information to the Congress. We can then make some decisions based upon the information that you're providing us. And my second and last question has to do with the new Department of Homeland Security. I, like a lot of other Americans, have wondered that with the consolidation really of homeland security functions from 22 different federal agencies into one, the Federal Department of Homeland Security, when—or whether we are going to see some savings associated with that perhaps through increased efficiency or just consolidation of duplicative functions. Or if we have not and do not see any in the short term whether you contemplate that we will in the mid to long term?