Alcee Hastings

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to my good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to my good friend the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor), a member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee, my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, before yielding to the distinguished budget chairperson, I want to respond to Mr. Ryan by saying, we don't have a spending revenue problem. I would remind him, when he said that, that he and his colleagues, with this President, have run up a debt larger than the previous 42 Presidents combined. No problem, Mr. Ryan? Please. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished budget chairman, who knows more about this process than all the rest of the Members in this body combined, Mr. Spratt.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Patrick Murphy).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time, for purpose of debate only, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina, one of the true rising stars in Democratic politics today, Heath Shuler.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield 30 minutes to the minority leader, my friend, or his designee, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. Title IV of our rules package is one of the ones of which I am most proud. Over the past 12 years, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, while allegedly praying to the gods of fiscal responsibility, have nearly sunk our ship of state in red ink. Today we begin to right this ship and staunch the unmitigated gall of telling the American people that, on the one hand, they need to be more responsible with their money, but, on the other hand, Congress should face no such obstacle. Today we will say ``no more'' to spending money that the government doesn't have, only to pass down to the young people of America, some of whom we saw here yesterday afternoon, passing it on to them before they even have a say in how their money is being spent. Yes, today we say to the American people that Congress, like you at home, Jane and Joe Lunchbucket, will not spend money that we don't have. Our credit card is maxed out and we start to reduce it today. My fellow Democratic colleagues will provide more details about this new set of House rules presently, but there is one more point I want to make perfectly clear. I am not going to, and I hope my colleagues aren't going to listen to my friends on the other side of the aisle lecture us about not doing enough here today. I have read some of their ``talking points'' from the Budget Committee. And while I may not be a whiz kid, I know a little something about being lectured to. And having this particular group of Republicans lecture us on fiscal responsibility is a little like having the horses on the farm complain to the ranch hand that he is not using a big enough shovel to clean up. This analogy is not only appropriate, Mr. Speaker, it is perfect. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I say to my friend from Georgia that what I do know is he is not proud of the $3 trillion deficit that his party ran up in this country that we have the responsibility of cleaning up. I hope he is not proud of that. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Florida, a new Member, whose district abuts mine, Mr. Mahoney.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to a gentleman from Indiana whose committee was called, ``Bring back Baron'' and I am very glad we brought back Baron.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased at this time to yield 1 minute to a gentleman that was a sheriff that had to pay as he went with reference to equipment for his department, Brad Ellsworth from Indiana.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Bush administration has turned a projected 10-year $5.6 billion surplus into a nearly $3 trillion deficit, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would come here and complain that we are cleaning up their mess. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my good friend from California, the distinguished gentleman, Mr. Schiff.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to my friend from Utah (Mr. Matheson). Jim came here fighting for fiscal responsibility and continues that effort.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to one of the co-chairs of the Blue Dogs, my friend from California (Mr. Cardoza).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to one of 13 members of the physicians in the House of Representatives, the distinguished colleague, my friend, Mr. Kagen.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Reclaiming my time, I think the gentleman has made his point. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am very pleased to yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Florida, who is my neighbor, Mr. Ron Klein, who I believe is speaking for the first time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida, my good friend, Kathy Castor, who is the first new Member to speak in the 110th Congress.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I want to assure my colleagues that this is not the intent of this provision. It is not intended to apply to a Member who is using her or his own airplane, whether or not it is on his personal campaign or official business. Specifically, it is not intended to apply to the use of the Members' representational allowance to reimburse a Member for mileage on his or her own airplane. We will work closely with the Ethics Committee and the Committees on House Administration to ensure that this is how these committees will interpret the rule.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I just wish to share with Mr. Dreier in the spirit of bipartisanship that mincing words with reference to whether or not you knew that this portion of the draft of the 109th rules are those of the 110th actually don't even get to the level of substance that we ought be dealing with, with something as important as the rules. You know the rules. I agree with you that that draft that you are talking about came from the 109th; but all I am suggesting to you is that you are not surprised by anything in title I, because you participated in writing it and, therefore, I think that the record should reflect that, notwithstanding the fact. Now, I assure you, having served on the Rules Committee with you with distinction and respecting you greatly, that you can reasonably expect that you are not only going to have 24 hours notice, you are going to have a lot of notice regarding a lot of measures that we were never accorded. And, toward that end, in the spirit of bipartisanship, I will not object to your offer.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I reserve the right to object.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I object, and I reserve the right to object.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Can I get a yes or no?