Joe Knollenberg

Mr. KNOLLENBERG

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I move that the committee do now rise and report the bill back to the House with sundry amendments, with the recommendation that the amendments be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, do pass.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5576, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am pleased to present the House H.R. 5576, the fiscal year 2007 Transportation-Treasury-HUD appropriations bill, which was passed out of committee by a voice vote on June 6. As you know, this is only the subcommittee's second year with its current jurisdiction, and I believe the product before the House is worthy of strong support. It is a fiscally responsible bill funding high priority programs and eliminating Federal funds for other programs that are duplicative or ineffective. I am aware of a number of amendments that would seek to undo these decisions, but I want people to know we made these decisions by looking at program performance, effectiveness and a balance of other priorities in the bill. The bill before us is at our 302(b) allocation of $67.8 billion in BA, and provides total budgetary resources, including transportation obligation limitations and mandatory spending of $139.7 billion, an increase of $8.5 billion over last year and $1 billion over the request. Many of the increases over the budget request are due to House rule mandating certain funding levels for highways, transit and aviation programs; restoring CDBG funding in the bill; and some scoring differences between CBO and OMB. Mr. Chairman, I would like to salute the hard work of the subcommittee members, both on the majority and minority side of the aisle. The bill before us is the product of numerous budget hearings and thoughtful input of each member of the subcommittee, and they deserve to be saluted. Mr. Chairman, I also want to acknowledge the role the subcommittee's ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts, played in assembling this bill. I consider Mr. Olver a partner in creating the product before you because his input has been invaluable. I believe this bill is stronger because of the input that Mr. Olver has provided. And without much fanfare, I would like to give a quick overview of what we have been able to accomplish under our allocation. In transportation, we have met all of the guarantees for surface transportation and safety and aviation infrastructure as included in SAFETEA-LU and Vision-100. For FAA operations, we have provided funds for 132 net new controllers, plus an additional $16 million over the request for safety inspectors. I realize there will be a lot of attention paid to Amtrak today, tonight, and perhaps even tomorrow. The bill provides $900 million, the same as the budget request, and $394 million below last year's enacted level. The bill continues our tough stance requiring Amtrak to reduce losses and achieve operational efficiencies with close supervision by the Inspector General. I would emphasize this is not the ``Amtrak'' bill. There are a number of priorities in this bill and any amendment seeking to just slash other accounts, accounts that everyone will agree cannot sustain the cuts proposed by these amendments, is just plainly irresponsible. The subcommittee had two priorities to meet for HUD in 2007. First and foremost was the full funding of Section 8 renewals. Failure to fully meet these commitments would have resulted in thousands of families losing their assistance and becoming homeless. We have met those needs. Our second priority is to restore, to the maximum extent possible, the formula funding for cities and towns across America through the Community Development Block Grant. As you know, the administration proposed to cut this program by $1 billion which was funded at $4.2 billion last year. I am pleased to say we were able to fully restore funding for CDBG for fiscal year 2007. To achieve this, however, the committee had to do a broad sweep of duplicative and lower priority programs throughout the Department, including boutique programs that have typically been funded by reducing the amounts in the formula CDBG program. It is never easy to stop funding a program once it starts getting Federal funds, but we have to make these decisions in order to meet our main funding objectives. For the IRS, the bill provides $10.5 billion, $110 million below the budget request and $63 million below last year's enacted level. This level of funding will allow the IRS to maintain current services with some hard choices. I should warn everyone that further cuts to the IRS would severely impact their ability to meet their mission. I also note we took the first step to restructure the IRS accounts to more closely align with their core missions, taxpayer services and enforcement. For the Judiciary, the bill provides sufficient funding to maintain the current services of the Federal Judiciary, including rent and personnel increases. For the District of Columbia, we provided the budget request for Federal payments to the District for tuition assistance, court costs and school improvement. We were able to fund the Navy Yard Metro Station through FTA's New Starts program, and provide $1 million for the Central Library improvements. As for the District of Columbia's local budget, the bill appropriates the budget and financial plan by reference, carries many of the same general provisions of the past, and includes no new riders. We restored funding for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program to $227 million, slightly more than last year. Executive Office of the President programs are funded at the requested levels. All in all, after much hard work and discussion, I believe we have a balanced bill before us. No, we didn't fund every program, but we did fund the higher priorities under our jurisdiction that will deliver the best results to the most people, and that I believe is our responsibility. Also, we have included Member priorities in this bill. I would especially like to note that Member projects in this bill are less than one-third of what they were in last year's bill. I will repeat that: Less than one-third of what they were in last year's bill, demonstrating yet again the committee's commitment to earmark reform and the fact that it is real. Each project was a part of the budget request or authorized under an existing program in law, and requested by a Member of Congress as being important to the district and the people they represent. This is a fiscally sound bill, scored repeatedly by CBO. There are no gimmicks, no date changes, no unreal savings. Again, Mr. Chairman, this is a balanced bill and I urge the Committee's support for it. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Yes, I most certainly will work with the gentleman from Illinois on this project.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter).

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. The gentleman is correct.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to respond. I share your concerns. And I thank my colleague for raising this very important issue today. He correctly points out that the bill includes $227 million for HIDTA, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. The subcommittee has funded this important program again this year, even though the President requested that the program be transferred to the Department of Justice at a reduced level of funding. I would be happy to work with the gentleman from Nevada as this bill moves forward. We can work together to make sure that the issue of methamphetamine and other drug trafficking as it relates to Nevada is forthrightly addressed in the final budget for this account.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. I recognize the difficult situation that some PHAs across the country are facing. Providing flexibility to housing agencies while at the same time ensuring that HUD can effectively manage its programs is a no-cost solution that, if administered properly, will ensure continued service to low-income families. However, at the same time, NYCHA and other PHAs need to make sure that they are taking full advantage of the current flexibility that exists between the public housing operating and capital funds. As this process continues, I look forward to working with the gentlewoman from New York.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure now to yield to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), for whatever time he may wish to consume.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. I would just say that I agree to work with you on this. I appreciate your bringing it forward. And we will also work with the FMCSA on this issue. So thank you.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, following the full committee amendment process, CBO's scoring of our bill resulted in slightly more than $20.7 million in savings. This amendment will place this funding in the IRS operations support account, which was reduced by $50 million below the President's request. I understand that this has been cleared with the minority, and therefore I ask for the adoption of this amendment.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would increase funding for Amtrak by gutting and eliminating critical programs, including safety programs, resulting in reductions in force at several agencies. This bill was put together by making some very difficult decisions to balance a wide variety of critical needs from some very diverse programs. The amendment would undermine the difficult work done by the subcommittee by haphazardly making unrealistic and undisciplined cuts throughout the bill. It would cut the Office of the Secretary of Transportation by 25 percent. That is well below the fiscal year for 2006. This will result in reductions in force for OST and will impact mission critical operations, including security planning as well as coordination and response efforts. These areas proved critical during last year's hurricanes, and we have now entered the hurricane season again. It would eliminate the critical rail safety research programs under the Federal Railroad Administration. This is a little confusing, because several years ago it is this research program that pinpointed the problem associated with Amtrak's brakes on the Acela and found the solution and allowed Acela to get up and running again. The amendment would severely reduce funds for the Federal Maritime Commission and the Surface Transportation Board, resulting in RIFs for both of these agencies, and cutting the Federal Buildings Fund by $560 million will leave the fund without the resources it needs to build critical, secure crossings on our Southern border with Mexico. Mr. Chairman, it would not strengthen the Federal buildings against threatening terrorism attacks. Let me repeat this. Vote for this amendment and you are voting against building border crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border and against funding to secure the Federal buildings against terrorism. Let me go a little further and explain that these cuts would completely eliminate GSA's new construction of six border stations at the crossing at McAllen, Texas, at El Paso, Texas, Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Columbus, New Mexico, Calexico, California, and Nogales, Arizona. In addition, the amendment would eliminate the Food and Drug Administration Montgomery County, Maryland Project, as well as remove the delivery facility in Anacostia for mail sorting for the Federal Government, something that is sadly needed, and with the threat of anthrax and other deadly substances in government mail. Repairs and alterations to Federal buildings will be stopped or slowed, repairs and alterations that are needed to secure government workers and the general public from possible terrorist attacks. Mr. Chairman, cutting border security and funds to protect Federal workers against terrorism is irresponsible. I ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, could I inquire about how much time is left on our side?

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to a member of the subcommittee, Todd Tiahrt from Kansas.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, again I would like to inquire about the time remaining for our side.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, by the way, let me thank Mr. LaTourette for suggesting the 20-minute situation divided by two. I appreciate that very much. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica).

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), the chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee.

Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Chairman, I would yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).