Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague for bringing this amendment forward. I rise in strong support of the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, we are talking about appropriations bills, and, of course, people across the country are concerned, as we are, about the fact that our country is spending money we don't have. Washington spends almost 40 cents of every dollar with borrowed money. This is money we are borrowing from countries like China, ironically, and then here you have an amendment that highlights the fact that we are spending money through the National Science Foundation on grants to study the effects of global warming on tea grown in China.

I mean, is this part of the deal that we cut with China when they loan us money to continue deficit spending? This is ludicrous. This is a classic example of wasteful Washington spending. And I commend, again, the gentleman for bringing this amendment because there are opportunities we have to highlight areas of wasteful Washington spending where we should at least be able to agree, as Republicans and Democrats, that every single dollar we are looking at we ought to ask the first question: Is this program--is this program worth borrowing money not only from countries like China, but borrowing money from our children? Our children are going to have to pay for these bills. And does this really rise to that level that it is worth borrowing money from our children, who are going to be getting that credit card bill, $931,000 of tax payer money, to study the effects of climate change on tea grown in China?

This is ludicrous. This is ludicrous spending. We ought not be doing it. We ought to at least be able to set priorities and agree, as Republicans and Democrats, that we are going to get serious about fiscal responsibility, and it starts with the little things.

This is not billions and trillions that we are talking about, but this is how you get to billions and trillions of dollars of debt. So while China holds maybe over a trillion dollars of our debt, I don't think it is going to cause any kind of international relations problem, that fact that we are going to say we should not spend $931,000 of money we don't have that is being borrowed from countries like China to study the effects of global warming on tea grown in China.

This is ludicrous. This doesn't pass the laugh test. When they say it is not all of the tea in China, this is a place where we should agree to stop spending taxpayer money on something that is incredibly wasteful.

Again, this is money borrowed from our children and borrowed from countries like China. We ought not be doing it.

Again, I thank the gentleman for bringing this amendment. It is a great example where we should be able to agree and say enough is enough.

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