Paul Broun

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, my amendment would reduce the proposed funding for salaries and expenses of bureaucrats here in Washington at the Office of Housing by $5 million. That's absolutely correct. This amendment, as well as all of my amendments, will not cut the programs. It will not cut the programs one iota. What this does is it reduces the salaries. I just heard my good friend from Massachusetts talking about Federal bureaucrats getting raises. I have frozen the salaries of people who work for me, and I know many Members of Congress have, for the last 2 years. Why should we be giving Federal bureaucrats more money when the American people are not getting raises? It makes no sense to me, particularly as we are in an economic emergency. We are spending money we don't have. We have to stop the outrageous spending that's going on here in Washington. Enough is enough. And raising this office, as well as all these offices, above the 2012 makes no economic sense to me whatsoever. Let's be fiscally responsible. My good friend from Iowa, who I have the utmost respect for, has done a tremendous job in this bill, and I do appreciate the tremendous hard work that he and his committee has done. And I appreciate the $4 million that they've cut. But why raise the salaries of Federal bureaucrats? My amendment would simply reduce the proposed funding back to the 2012 levels. I urge support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, again I rise to propose an amendment just to freeze the salaries of this Office of Policy Development and Research by a mere $115,000. Madam Chairman, I hear colleagues around here talking as if millions of dollars, tens of millions--hundreds of millions of dollars is nothing. Well, most of my constituents at home in Georgia, most Americans think that $1 million is a lot of money, and I certainly think $1 million is a lot of money. But we have proposed, in this underlying bill, to raise the administrative expenses and salaries. My good friend from Massachusetts, in the previous amendment, said we need to increase the salaries of the bureaucrats. I hope my good friend from Iowa (Mr. Latham), when he stood up on the last amendment saying that we weren't going to increase salaries of Federal bureaucrats, is factual. I hope that that goes in the Record and it becomes true that we're not going to raise the salaries of Federal bureaucrats. But they're proposing raising the administrative expenses and salaries in all of these offices, so I'm proposing just to freeze these expenses for 1 more year. Let's bring this account back down to this current year's levels of spending. We cannot continue on this road. Madam Chairman, I'm a medical doctor. As a medical doctor, part of my medical practice for many years has been involved in treating addictions, drug and alcohol addictions. In addiction medicine, we have a saying: When there's no denial, there's no addiction. Congress and government have a spending addiction. It's a spending addiction, and there's a tremendous amount of denial here in this city--in all branches of government, actually. We need to face the fact: We're broke as a Nation. We've got to stop the outrageous spending. I'm proposing just a mere $115,000 to freeze the expenses for this office and salaries for this office for 1 more year. I don't think that's too much for me to ask. I don't think that's too much for the American taxpayer, the hardworking American taxpayer to ask for us to freeze the salaries of these bureaucrats here in Washington and freeze their expenses for 1 more year--not only for this amendment, but for the amendments that I've already presented and the ones that I will present. Let's freeze this spending for 1 more year, keep it at the FY 2012 levels. I urge support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, again I rise just to freeze the funding for salaries and office expenses for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity by a meager $304,000. If we cannot cut out $115,000 or $304,000, what are we going to cut? And as my friend from Massachusetts already said, actually, on two of my amendments, that it's to increase salaries of Federal bureaucrats. We've got to freeze the salaries of these bureaucrats. We've got to be fiscally responsible. My amendment doesn't cut any program, doesn't cut any service, doesn't cut out any part of the necessary aspects of the Federal Government. All it does is it freezes the salaries and the expenses of this office, as the other amendments would do. It freezes it at this year's levels. Doesn't even go backwards, freezes it at this year's levels. I urge support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, the underlying bill is suggesting that Congress allot an increase of $110 million in Federal funding for the Public Housing Capital Fund from this fiscal year, from fiscal year 2012. My amendment would simply freeze funding at our current level and reduce the proposed funding by $110 million. We've got to stop spending. That's what all my efforts are geared towards. We can continue to perform the necessary functions of the Federal Government for those who need it. My amendment would just freeze the proposed increase in funding so that we keep it at this current year's level. I urge my colleagues to support this very simple amendment, which would save over $110 million for the hardworking taxpayers of America. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I was going to introduce another amendment to this same program which would have been a decrease of just 10 percent of the increase. As I see things going on here today, we can't even cut out $115,000. Cutting out $11 million, I'm sure, is out of the question for my colleagues. Madam Chair, we've just got to stop this outrageous spending here in Washington. So I'm not going to offer the other one. I would anticipate a point of order being brought against it, and rightfully so. So I'm not going to introduce that amendment. I just ask my colleagues--and I hope that they hear from Americans all over this country--to stop the spending. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairwoman, the underlying bill increases funding for the public housing operating fund by over $500 million for fiscal year 2013. My amendment would simply return the funding back to this year from the proposed levels. It's a $500 million increase at a time when our Nation is broke and American taxpayers are struggling to put food on their tables and looking for jobs. It is imperative that we look for commonsense cuts wherever we can, and this is one of those. It's a lot of money, $500 million. Some would say it's a very small amount compared to the overall funding level proposed in this bill, but it's still $500 million. We just have to stop spending money that we don't have. I urge my colleagues to support this very simple amendment that would save over $500 million, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Funding for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation is over $12 million higher than what the President's budget request was. Now, the President and I don't typically see eye to eye on most spending issues, but I am proud to support his requested level of funding for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. By supporting my amendment, why don't we show the American people that we are serious about our Nation's fiscal crisis and that both parties are capable of working together by setting the funding back to the President's requested funding level for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, which would save the American taxpayers over $12 million. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, my amendment is very straightforward. It would simply reduce the overall funding for the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Transportation by $389,000. This office is one of 13 in the underlying bill which are slated to receive increases for administrative expenses, despite the fiscal emergency that we're currently facing. The passage of this amendment would simply bring this account back to fiscal year 2012 levels. I see my good friend from Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee. She knows we have fought together very hard for civil rights and civil liberties here in this House, in committee as well as on the floor, and believe very strongly that we need to protect our civil liberties and our civil rights. But the simple truth is that we're broke as a Nation, and this amendment would just simply keep funding at the current level instead of raising it. It would just turn it back--what's proposed in the underlying bill--to the current level of spending, but not reduce any functions of this office. It would not prohibit this office from doing any of its work. It would help, in a small way, to put us back into a more realistic fiscal state as a Nation because, Mr. Chairman, we just have to stop spending money that we don't have. It's across the board. Every bureau, every office, every bit of the Federal Government needs to not have increases in their costs to the taxpayer, not have further borrowing of money that we just don't have. We've just got to stop spending money we don't have. This simple amendment keeps funding at our current level. That's all it does. With that, I urge support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.