Charles Taylor

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio, [Ms. Pryce].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Kentucky [Mrs. Northup].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First of all the Moran amendment in effect, could be called the Rubber Stamp Act of 1997, because we would be merely putting forth what the Senate put forth, and we found a number of deficits. I outlined in my early comments that there are many things that our bill does that the Senate bill does not do, and we are going to have folks to explain that during our 45 minutes. But to mention one of the areas that the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] just spoke about, we do differ about the FMS. There was $31 million to be spent on the FMS. Now, our committee did not arbitrarily say we are going to prevent this from happening. We investigated. We got reports from the GAO, we got reports from our S&I staff, and I have the essence of those reports. One of them says, after going through a list of reasons why we should not spend that $31 million--they conclude by saying that, ``This acquisition should be considered premature and would only result in continued system inaccuracies and rising costs.'' One of the other reports says that, ``We believe there is a higher risk that the District will be driven by its ambitious acquisition schedule and will not allow itself time to develop the kind of quality analysis that it must have in order to manage this important project, which is so critical to the District's financial recovery.'' What they said was that it is much better for us to hire professional staff to augment what we have in the District of Columbia, and to produce an honest, clear, accounting, and until we do that, we should not be spending $31 million and getting the same inaccurate analysis and reports that we have had in the past. So if we want to rely on GAO, S&I, and other testimony we had in the Committee, then we should not be spending $31 million of the taxpayers' funds in this manner. We have not been disputed in this during any of the hearings, and that is one of the reasons that we held this position. We believe that we should spend that money only when we are absolutely sure that we are getting adequate accounting, and not just because there is some reason to spend $31 million. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Flake].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. I do, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California [Mr. Cunningham].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay], the majority whip.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt], a member of the subcommittee.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Kentucky [Mrs. Northup].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Walsh], the former chairman of the subcommittee.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, we have one remaining speaker to close. We have the right to close, I believe, do we not?

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California [Mr. Horn].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's concerns, and I will make every effort to accommodate the gentleman's request in conference.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Dickey].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston], the chairman of our full committee.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Davis].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, of course taking the suggestion of the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran], we could just abolish the House and just let the Senate make our determinations and we could all go home. But many of us think we have additional ideas that we would like to put forth. There is some hypocrisy, Mr. Chairman, about the items that we have inserted here. First of all, the Constitution lays at the steps of the Congress, the management of the District of Columbia. It is our full responsibility. And we can certainly work with the city council and the administration, but we bear the responsibility for legislation for the Nations Capital. Second, many times it serves the minority's interests well when they do not go with the city, and sometimes they want to go with the city. For instance, the administration, without any consultation with Congress, without any consultation with the city council, closed a section of Pennsylvania Avenue, at great inconvenience to the people of this city. Now, without getting into the debate, I have put language in our bill to reopen, that closed section because we have no evidence that that was closed with good reason. We think that the city council, which has asked us to insert the reopening provision is acting within their powers and that they should be consulted since this being a city street rather than just the administration making the decision. Also, Congress enacted a few years ago on a bill that moved the city's residency requirement for its 30,000 employees to live within the city. The District wanted to keep that residency requirement. It was the Congress that removed that, as it was pandering to the unions, and that has worked a severe hardship upon the city. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. Cunningham].

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\3/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston].