John Boehner

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states the following: On the first day of Congress, a Republican House will: Require Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else; cut committee staffs by one-third; and cut the congressional budget. We have done this. It goes on to state that in the first 100 days, we will vote on the following items: A balanced budget amendment--we have done this; unfunded mandates legislation--we have done this; line-item veto--we have done this; a new crime package to stop violent criminals--we have done this; and national security restoration to protect our freedoms-- we have done this. In the next 50 days or so we will pass welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence; family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; tax cuts for families to lift Government's burden from middle-income Americans; Senior Citizens' Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without Government penalty; Government regulatory reform; commonsense legal reform to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature. This is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment, and at this time yield to the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr].

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield to my good friend the gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs].

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states the following: That on the first day of Congress a Republican House will force Congress to live under the laws as everyone else, that we will cut committee staff by one-third and cut the congressional budget. And we have done this, and much, much more. It goes on to state that in the first 100 days we will vote on the following items: A balanced budget amendment, and we have done this; unfunded mandates legislation, and we have done this; line-item veto legislation, and we have also done this; a new crime package to stop violent criminals that we are in the process of now; welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence; family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; tax cuts for families to lift Government's burden from middle-income Americans; national security restoration to protect our freedoms; Senior Citizens Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without Government penalty; Government regulatory reform; commonsense legal reform to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature once again. My colleagues, this is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the following today while the House is meeting in the Committee of the Whole House under the 5-minute rule. The Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities and the Committee on the Judiciary. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that the minority has been consulted, and that there is no objection to these requests.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states the following: On the first day of Congress, a Republican House will: Force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else; cut committee staffs by one-third; and cut the congressional budget. We have done that. It goes on to state that in the first 100 days, we will vote on the following items: A balanced budget amendment--we have done this; unfunded mandates legislation--we have done this; line-item veto; a new crime bill to stop violent criminals; welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence; family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; tax cuts for families to lift Government's burden from middle-income Americans; national security restoration to protect our freedoms; Senior Citizens' Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without Government penalty; Government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms; commonsense legal reform to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature. This is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states; on the first day of our Congress, a Republican House will: Force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else; cut one-third of committee staff; and cut the congressional budget; we have done that. It goes on to state that in the first 100 days, we will vote on the following items: A balanced budget amendment--we have done this; unfunded mandates legislation, under consideration now, line-item veto; a new crime bill to stop violent criminals; welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence; family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; tax cuts for families to lift Government's burden from middle-income Americans; national security restoration to protect our freedoms; Senior Citizens' Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without Government penalty; Government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms; commonsense legal reform to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature once again. Mr. Speaker, this is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states that on the first day of a Republican House we will force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else, that we will cut one-third of the committee staff, cut the congressional budget, and Mr. President, we have done that. Mr. President, in the next 79 days, we will vote on the following 10 items: A balanced budget amendment, which begins today, and a line-item veto, a new crime bill to stop violent criminals, welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence, family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and to protect our children, tax cuts for families to lift government's burden from middle-income Americans, national security restoration to protect our freedoms, Senior Citizens' Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without government penalty, government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms, commonsense legal reforms to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature once again. This, Mr. Speaker, is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states that on the first day of Congress the Republican House will force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else, cut one third of the committee staffs, cut the congressional budget, and we have done that and many more changes on our opening day. In the next 80 days, Mr. Speaker, we will vote on the following 10 items: a balanced budget amendment and line-item veto, a new crime bill to stop violent criminals, welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence, family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and to protect our children, tax cuts for families to lift government's burden from middle income Americans, national security restoration to protect our freedoms, Senior Citizens Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without penalty, government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms, commonsense legal reforms to end frivolous lawsuits, and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature once again. My colleagues, this is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states: On the first day of Congress, a Republican House will: force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else, cut one-third of committee staff, and cut the congressional budget. We have done that. In the next 84 days, we will vote on the following 10 items: No. 1, a balanced budget amendment and line-item veto; No. 2, a new crime bill to stop violent criminals; No. 3, welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence; No. 4, family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; No. 5, tax cuts for families to lift Government's burden from middle income Americans; No. 6, national security restoration to protect our freedoms; No. 7, senior citizens' equity act to allow our seniors to work without Government penalty; No. 8, Government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms; No. 9, commonsense legal reform to end frivolous lawsuits; and No. 10, congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature. This is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America states on the first day of a Republican Congress, our House will force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else, cut one-third of committee staff, and the congressional budget, and, ladies and gentlemen, we have done that. In the next 86 days, we will vote on the following 10 items: A balanced budget amendment and line-item veto; a new crime bill to stop violent criminals; welfare reform to encourage work, not dependence; family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; tax cuts for families, to lift Government's burden from the middle-income Americans; national security restoration to protect our freedoms; the Senior Citizens Equity Act to allow our seniors to work without Government penalty; Government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms; commonsense legal reforms to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature once again. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our Contract With America.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, our Contract With America says that on the first day of Congress a Republican House will force Congress to live under the same laws as everyone else; second, that we would cut one- third of the committee staff; and third, that we would cut the congressional budget. We did all of that on the opening day last week. In the next 94 days we will vote on the following 10 items: A balanced budget amendment and line item veto; a new crime bill to stop violent criminals; welfare reform that encourages work and not dependence; family reinforcement to crack down on deadbeat dads and protect our children; tax cuts for families; national security restoration to protect our freedoms; the Senior Citizens Equity Act to allow older Americans to return to work without Government penalty; Government regulation and unfunded mandate reforms; commonsense legal reform to end frivolous lawsuits; and congressional term limits to make Congress a citizen legislature once again. [[Page H150]] Mr. Speaker, this is our Contract With America. We mean what we say. Watch what we do.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, we have 99 days left in our pledge to the American people with our Contract With America. Yesterday the House fulfilled its promise when we decided to apply all the laws that apply to other Americans to the House itself. We cut the number of committees and subcommittees, we cut committee staff by one-third, we decided to limit the terms of committee chairmen, we banned proxy voting in committee, we opened committee meetings to the public in all cases except those that involve national security, and we decided to change the rules to require a three-fifths majority to raise taxes. We are going to eliminate baseline budgeting and have real numbers for the first time, and we announced we are going to have a complete, comprehensive audit of the House and its books over the past year. There are 10 items that we are continued to commit to bring to the floor over these next 99 days. Republicans in the House are committed to doing that. We are committing to the American people to continue to live up to the contract that we made with you.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentleman, there are a lot of important reforms in title II of this part of the rules package tonight. One of those sections in there eliminates legislative service organizations or, as some have come to be known, taxpayer funded caucuses. The gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Roberts], sitting in the back of the Chamber, spent 14 years, and I have joined him the last 4 years, along with other Members, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Kleczka], in trying to reform these LSO's, but, no, we could never get real reform of LSO's. We could never get a full accounting of the funds. We could never build a wall between these taxpayer-funded caucuses and outside 5013(c) organizations these foundations. And so putting this in the rules package guarantees that no longer will the U.S. House of Representatives have to fund these organizations. That means less space, less overhead, less cost to America's taxpayers. It is the right move, and the people who put this in here ought to be congratulated.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, on October 1, 1991, I stood here on this House floor and I said, ``What are we trying to hide from the American people? What do we have to fear?'' Today we have a historic opportunity to vote to open up the books of the U.S. Congress in a very open and complete way. We know that sunshine is the best disinfectant, and never in the history of this Congress have we ever had an open and complete audit of the books of this Congress for the American people to view. And echoing the comments of my colleagues who were involved with me, my six other colleagues, I fully encourage the Inspector General to not only do the fiscal 1995 audit, but I would encourage the Inspector General to look back, to look back several years at some areas of the Congress that have been called into question, LSO's the House restaurant system, the Speaker's contingent fund, the disposal of office equipment that has raised everyone's eyebrows, but we never have seen the details. I am pleased tonight to be here to support this very important part of our House rules.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, I am going to congratulate Members on both sides of the aisle for the work they have put into this bill over the last several sessions. The gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays] has been particularly active and has done a great job, along with the gentleman from New Hampshire, Mr. Swett, in the last session. It is about time this bill has come to the floor so we can actually get it implemented. But I hope there will be two things that come as a result of this legislation actually being enacted. First is that Members will begin to realize when we are drafting bills and we are building bills here on the floor, that the full weight of these bills will in fact fall upon us as Members of Congress. I think that with the passage of this bill, that Members will recognize that fact, that we are going to have to live under these. We might be a little more cautious. Second, I would point out that we ought to, as we begin to live under these laws, we are going to realize that the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Civil Rights Act, and other laws we have exempted ourselves from, are rather weighty. They are weighty on the private sector, and they are going to be very difficult for all of the Members to comply with under our current structure. So we are going to have two choices, and we ought to have a debate about whether we should continue to live under the laws as they were drafted, or whether in fact we ought to go back and listen to what the American people said on November 8 when they said Government is too big, it spends too much, and is too intrusive, and maybe we ought to look at some of those laws and revise a lot of them. Let me also say as we begin to close this debate tonight, that as this opening day comes to a close, we have lived up to the first part of our Contract with America. We have had real reform of the people's House. And just as important as that was, today we did that in a very bipartisan manner. And I hope that as we continue over the next 99 days, we will continue to pass the rest of the Contract with America in this same spirit of bipartisanship.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. I yield to my friend, the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio].

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Clerk, before we proceed with the nominations for Speaker of the House, on behalf of Republican Members of the House, we want to thank you for your 35 years of service to this institution, and your 35 years of service to the American people. You have done your job ably on behalf of all Members on both sides of the aisle. And to the other officers of the House, who have served the House so ably and the American people so ably, we want to thank them as well for their service in this House. Farewell, and best wishes from all of us.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Clerk, as chairman of the Republican Conference, I am honored and privileged to welcome my colleagues and the American people to this historic day. We have been sent here--to the People's House--to write, together, a new chapter in our blessed Nation's history. There is great anticipation, excitement, and expectation in America about what this new chapter will say. To America I say, we shall write the chapter as you dictate it to us. This is your House and your will will be reflected in our actions. As the first sentence of this new chapter, I am directed by the unanimous vote of the Republican Conference to present the name of the Honorable Newt Gingrich, a Representative-elect from the State of Georgia, for election to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 104th Congress. The Clerk. The Clerk now recognizes the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio].

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution [H. Res. 11] and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 1) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Democratic caucus, I have been directed to report to the House that the Democratic members have selected as minority whip the gentleman from Michigan, the Honorable David E. Bonior.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Republican conference, I am directed by that conference to notify the House officially that the Republican Members have selected as our majority whip the gentleman from Texas, the Honorable Tom DeLay.

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Republican conference, I am directed by that conference to officially notify the House that the gentleman from Texas, the Honorable Richard K. Armey, has been selected as the majority leader of the House.