Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2551, Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. SESSIONS. I want to thank the distinguished gentlewoman from North Carolina, who sits right next to me in the Rules Committee and has for a number of years. And I appreciate not only her leadership but her service.

Mr. Speaker, I want to stand up just as a Member of this body. We're all equal representatives in this body, and I do recognize that there are people that come down here and talk about all the layoffs that will occur and all the hard times and people losing their insurance and all the dramatic things that will happen.

Mr. Speaker, we need a 6 percent cut. We need a 6 percent cut because we've been receiving outlandish increments of increases for a number of years, including the first year, I believe, that Speaker Pelosi was in, a 10 percent increase.

Mr. Speaker, the American people are having a tough time. But the American free enterprise system, when faced with these opportunities, and I think it's what will happen in our offices, we're all going to look at each other; and instead of laying somebody off, we'll all understand there's not enough money to go around and we're going to have to all take a sacrifice.

That's what I intend to do in my office, and I hope my employees will understand that.

This is going to mean some changes, and sometimes change is hard. But just to continue to receive more money because taxpayers, who control the money--that taxpayers would expect us to just answer every one of their questions and do every one of their things is an outlandish example of a government out of control.

We need to make sure that our offices are just as responsible as other areas of the government. It's time to cut back. It's time that we take a hit. It's time that we join with the rest of the American people and understand these are difficult times; these are difficult times because government is too big, costs too much money, listens too little, and now is unadaptive to the hard times themselves.

Mr. Speaker, I say let's vote for this Legislative appropriations bill, and let's cut the amount of money that we have for ourselves in the House of Representatives. A 6 percent cut helps lead the way, and we can do that. That's why Republicans are in the majority; we can make tough decisions in difficult times.

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