Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this.

This is a mindless but easy cut. Tough words. By the way, this is sequester, which is a Republican proposal. It started in about 2011 but, really, before that with all of these across-the-board cuts because you don't have to make any choices, and you don't have to make priorities. You just say, Oh, let's save money.

Frankly, so many of the people in this country want this Congress to have vigorous oversight of the executive department, which has expanded very substantially while the legislature has continued to undermine its ability to function as an effective oversight agency of the American people. The legislative branch is underfunded. We do not have the capacity to do the effective oversight as we ought to be doing. The Department of Veterans Affairs is a perfect example of that where we were not vigorous enough in oversight to ensure that money was being applied properly.

If you want to cut and if you want to say something--this is not good; that is not good; we are wasting money there--then specify it. Debate that issue up or down. That is why sequester is so abysmally wrong and why the chairman of the committee called it unrealistic and ill-conceived. This is not Obama's proposal of a sequester. I am not talking about this amendment, but to say, as you repeatedly say on your side of the aisle, that this is Obama's proposal is baloney. In fact, the only reason Jack Lew suggested that to Reid as an option was because you--and I refer to the Republican friends on the other side of the aisle--were threatening not to honor the Nation's debt.

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Mr. HOYER. That is the only reason we passed sequester, and nobody intended sequester to go into effect. It was always a backup. Because we have failed to come to an agreement on a fiscally responsible, sustainable path, we have repaired to this ill-conceived, unrealistic concept of sequester. This 1 percent across the board is exactly that. It puts intellect on hold and judgment on hold. That is not why the American people sent us here.

Reject this amendment. Respect this institution, and respect our responsibility to the American people.

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