Rogers: CR is a "Monumental Accomplishment" for American Taxpayers

Details have emerged about H.R.1, Continuing Resolution, for FY11 that was passed early Saturday morning. Decided the best source was to go directly to the site of the Chair Harold Rogers of the House Appropriations Committee and found this press release that details the cuts.

It was a free wheeling 60 hours of debate with 580 amendments submitted of which 67 amendments were passed adding an additional $620 million in savings. The amendments were accepted from both sides of the aisle something that has been missing under the four years of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker as their bills were done behind closed doors and brought to the floor with little or no debate or amendments allowed and then passed.

We want to point out that Rep Dan Boren (D-OK) has an amendment that was in this bill that was passed BUT he voted against the continuing resolution in lockstep with Pelosi. Didn't take him long to get back on the Pelosi bandwagon. Is he going to continue to vote with Pelosi or go back to being the independent Congressman that has served him so well?

This one paragraph in this press release is probably one the reason the Democrat leadership was all over the Sunday Morning Talk Shows saying the Republicans want to shut down Government on March 4th as they didn't like the ball being in their court:

“So that we can promptly continue our regular budgetary work for this year, the House, Senate, and White House must come together to complete this process before March 4th – when our current funding measure expires. It is critically important that we move this CR, avoid a government shutdown, and get spending cuts passed by the Congress and signed by the President. The American people expect no less,” Rogers said.

This is not 1994 as our economy is in the tank and the deficit continues to grow thanks to the runaway spending of the last two years under Obama. The American people want the cuts and no amount of spin by the media and the Democrats is going to change that. This time the majority of American voters are going to blame the Democrats for not being willing to make the necessary cuts to start to right the ship.

Stay tuned as this should get interesting in the days ahead as we follow what the Senate is going to do. Will the Senate and Obama allow a Government shutdown? Time will tell!

Rogers: CR is a “Monumental Accomplishment” for American Taxpayers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers today praised the passage of H.R.1, the Continuing Resolution (CR). The legislation includes funding to continue federal government operations for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year, while making the largest single discretionary spending cut in the history of the nation.

“This bill is a monumental accomplishment for each and every American who believes that their government is spending too much. It dramatically scales back the size and scope of domestic government programs, eliminates $100 billion in spending compared to what the President asked for last year, and will mark the beginning of a new trend of reductions that will take place throughout the next year.

“We held no program harmless from our spending cuts, and virtually no area of government escaped this process unscathed. While these choices were difficult to make, we strived to spread the sacrifice fairly, weeding out waste and excess, with a razor-sharp focus on making the most out of every taxdollar.

“My Republican Committee members and I promised to slash spending and to help reduce our nation’s dangerous levels of deficits and debt so that our economy can grow and businesses can create jobs. This bill does just that,” Rogers said.

In addition to spending cuts, the legislation also contains multiple provisions to stop harmful regulations or programs that would hurt the nation’s economy and inhibit the ability of American businesses to create jobs, such as onerous EPA “greenhouse gas” regulations, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility application process, and the Obama Administration’s health care reform act.

“The hand of government has reached too far into Americans’ everyday lives, hindering our freedoms and impairing our economic recovery. This legislation will help stop harmful regulations, misguided laws, and over-reaching bureaucracies to allow our businesses to create jobs and our economy to thrive,” Rogers said.

This legislation will now go to the Senate for a vote. If the CR is not enacted before the current funding measure’s deadline of March 4th, Congress must pass another short-term funding resolution or else risk a government-wide shutdown.

“So that we can promptly continue our regular budgetary work for this year, the House, Senate, and White House must come together to complete this process before March 4th – when our current funding measure expires. It is critically important that we move this CR, avoid a government shutdown, and get spending cuts passed by the Congress and signed by the President. The American people expect no less,” Rogers said.

The CR was considered in an historic and unprecedented open process on the House floor that included more than 580 amendments offered by both parties and a grueling 60-plus hours of public debate. Of these amendments, 67 were accepted or passed, changing the underlying legislation and reflecting the fair representation of the American people. In all, the successful amendments included more than $620 million in additional spending cuts.

“For first time after years of closed-door Democrat control, the House was able to work its will in an open and transparent fashion in full view of the American people. Hundreds of amendments were considered, the debate offered everyone a chance to be heard, and the legislation now contains changes that reflect the many varied interests of families, communities, and businesses across the country. I am proud that the House has returned to a regular and fair democratic process, and look forward to continuing this effort throughout the Appropriations process this year,” Rogers said.

A list of the successful amendments to the CR (H.R. 1) follows:

· An amendment by Rep. Rooney (R-FL) to eliminate $450 million in funding for the Alternate Engine, produced by GE-Rolls Royce, for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

· An amendment by Rep. Michaud (D-ME) to transfer $80 million from the Census Bureau to the Economic Development Administration, an agency within the Department of Commerce.

· An amendment by Rep. Flake (R-AZ) to eliminate $34 million in funding for the National Drug Intelligence Center, a component of the Department of Justice that provides drug-related intelligence, training and support.

· An amendment by Rep. Holt (D-NJ) to ensure that the Department of Justice continues funding the National Instant Criminal Background Check at the current level of $20 million.

· An amendment by Rep. Weiner (D-NY) to transfer $298 million from NASA Cross Agency Support to the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.

· An amendment by Rep. McClintock (R-CA) to eliminate $1.9 million in funding from the Bureau of Reclamation.

· An amendment by Rep. Pascrell (D-NJ) to transfer $510 million from the research and development programs of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology program to increase funding for Firefighter SAFER grants, which use federal resources for hiring local firefighters.

· An amendment by Rep. Burton (R-IN) to eliminate $2 million in funding from the Bureau of Land Management for holding pens created for wild horses and burros.

· An amendment by Rep. Pompeo (R-KS) to eliminate $8.4 million from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Registry, a program that collects data on industrial greenhouse gas emissions, returning its funding to 2008 levels.

· An amendment by Rep. Reed (R-NY) to reduce EPA STAG grants by $10 million to defund sewer improvements in Tijuana, Mexico.

· An amendment by Rep. Walberg (R-MI) to decrease funding for the Grants and Administration portion of the National Endowment for the Arts by $20.5 million.

· An amendment from Rep. Canseco (R-TX) to eliminate $4.5 million from the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs program, which has the primary purpose of providing grants to not-for-profit institutions for performing arts and exhibitions in Washington, DC.

· An amendment from Rep. Reed (R-NY) that eliminates all funding ($15 million) from the Presidio Trust Fund, removing all funding for the Presidio National Park, a former military compound in San Francisco.

· An amendment from Rep. McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) that increases funding for Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), which funds state grants, by $557.7 million, restoring IDEA funding to the current level of $11.5 billion. The increase is offset by a $500 million cut to Teacher Quality State Grants and a $336.6 million cut to School Improvement Grants, a program that received $3 billion in “stimulus” funds and has $554 million in leftover funds from fiscal year 2010.

· An amendment from Rep. Young (R-AK) that strikes the language that prohibits the Department of Education from using the Alaska Native Education Equity Act and the Native Hawaiian Education Program, providing supplemental education services to the Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native populations.

· An amendment from Rep. Whitfield (R-KY) to eliminate $1.5 million for the “Greening of the Capitol” initiative from the Legislative Branch section of the CR.

· An amendment from Rep. Weiner (D-NY) that eliminates $42.6 million in funding from the United States Institute of Peace.

· An amendment from Rep. Canseco (R-TX) that eliminates $10.7 million in funding for the East-West Center, an independent, public nonprofit that has historically not received funding in the Subcommittee bill.

· An amendment from Rep. McClintock (R-CA) that eliminates $20 million for tropical forest debt reduction, affecting the Department of the Treasury, Debt Restructuring portion of the CR.

· An amendment from Rep. Scalise (R-LA) that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay the salaries and expenses of the following “czars,” or special presidential advisers who are not required to go through the Senate confirmation process: Obama Care Czar, Climate Change Czar, Global Warming Czar, Green Jobs Czar, Car Czar, Guantanamo Bay Closure Czar, Pay Czar and Fairness Doctrine Czar.

· An amendment from Rep. Cole (R-OK) that restricts public funds from being used for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund or political party conventions. This amendment correlates with the “YouCut” bill that passed the House in January, saving $38 million in fiscal year 2012.

· An amendment from Rep. Price (D-NC) that creates a subsidy for the operating expenses of state and local communities by waiving the cost share and eligibility requirements for SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Responders) Grants.

· An amendment from Rep. Walden (R-OR) that blocks funding for the Federal Communications Commission to institute Net Neutrality rules.

· An amendment from Rep. Carter (R-TX) that prohibits the use of funds to implement, administer or enforce the rule entitled “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants From the Portland Cement Manufacturing Industry and Standards of Performance for Portland Cement Plants,” published by the Environmental Protection Agency on September 9, 2010, which limits the levels of mercury in cement.

· An amendment from Rep. Lummis (R-WY) to put a moratorium, for the duration of the CR, on the payment of legal fees to citizens and groups who sue the government, in order to study abuses in the system.

· An amendment from Rep. Fortenberry (R-NE) that prohibits U.S. military assistance to Chad, due to its continued use of child conscription, consistent with the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007.

· An amendment from Rep. Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) that provides $30 million to carry out the provisions of title I of the PROTECT our Children Act.

· An amendment from Rep. Lowey (D-NY) that prohibits the use of funds for the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, State and Local Programs to provide grants under the Urban Area Security Initiative to more than 25 high-risk urban areas.

· An amendment from Rep. Hastings (D-FL) that increases funding for the HIV-AIDS within the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services account by $42 million.

· An amendment from Rep. Kline (R-MN) that bans funding for the Department of Education regulations on Gainful Employment, as-yet-unpublished rules that would restrict federal student aid to for-profit colleges whose students have high debt-to-income ratios and require the schools to report more information about student outcomes.

· An amendment from Rep. Pence (R-IN) to prohibit federal funds from being made available to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., or any of its affiliates.

· An amendment from Rep. Young (R-AK) to prohibit funds from being used by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to consider, review, reject remand or other invalidate any permit issued for Outer Continental Shelf sources located offshore of the States along the Arctic Coast.

· An amendment from Reps. Poe (R-TX), Barton (R-TX) and Carter (R-TX) that defines specifically what greenhouse gases are and prohibits the EPA from imposing regulations on those gasses emitted by a stationary source for seven months.

· Nine amendments to defund various aspects of President Obama’s health care law, effectively blocking the administration from carrying out the planned health system overhaul, including:

o An amendment from Rep. Rehberg (R-MT) that prohibits federal funding from being used to pay any employee, officer or contractor to implement the provisions of President Obama’s health care law, stopping the Department of Health and Human Services from implementing the law.
o An amendment from Rep. King (R-IA) that strips funding for any provision of the President’s health care law.
o An amendment from Rep. King (R-IA) that prohibits the payment of salaries for any officer or employee of any federal department or agency with respect to carrying out the President’s health care law. (This amendment has virtually the same effect as Rep. Rehberg’s amendment.)
o An amendment from Rep. Emerson (R-MO) that bars the use of funds in the bill from being used to implement the individual mandate and penalties and reporting requirements of the President’s health care law.
o An amendment from Rep. Price (R-GA) that prohibits the use of federal funds from being used to carry out the medical loss ratio restrictions in the President’s health care law. These provisions require insurers to spend at least a certain percent of their premium revenues on medical care.
o An amendment from Rep. Gardner (R-CO) that blocks funds for Health Insurance Exchanges, a set of state-regulated health care plans offered under the President’s health care law.
o An amendment from Rep. Burgess (R-TX) prohibiting the use of funds for employee and officer salaries at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services, created by the President’s health care reform bill.
o An amendment from Rep. Pitts (R-PA) that prohibits the funding of salaries for any officer or employee of the government to issue regulations on essential benefits under section 1302 of the President’s health care law.
o An amendment from Rep. Hayworth (R-NY) that prohibits funds for the independent payment advisory board.

· An amendment from Rep. McClintock (R-CA) that prohibits funds from being used to implement the Klamath (California) Dam Removal and Sedimentation Study, conducted by the US Bureau of Reclamation and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

· An amendment by Rep. Herger (R-CA) that prohibits the use of funds to implement or enforce the Travel Management Rule, which would close roads and trails on National Forest System land.

· An amendment from Rep. Boren (D-OK) that prohibits the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from collecting information on multiple sales of rifles or shotguns to the same person.

· An amendment by Rep. Forbes (R-VA) that prohibits the use of funds to take any action to effect or implement the disestablishment, closure or realignment of the US Joint Forces Command.

· An amendment by Rep. Forbes (R-VA) that prohibits the use of funds made available to the Department of Defense for official representation purposes.

· An amendment from Rep. Johnson (R-OH) to prohibit the use of funds for the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) from moving forward with a proposed rule that would effectively eliminate the Stream Buffer Zone Rule, a rule that presently allows surface mining operations with qualified permits to work within 100 feet of a stream.

· An amendment from Rep. Reed (R-NY) that prohibits the use of funds for the Overseas Comparability Pay Adjustment, an increase in pay for overseas Foreign Service Officers approved by President Obama under the supplemental appropriations bill in 2009.

· An amendment from Rep. Matheson (D-UT) that prohibits the use of funds for the Community Connect broadband grant program administered by the Rural Utilities Service of the Department of Agriculture.

· An amendment from Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) that would prohibit EPA funding for enforcement of total maximum daily loads in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

· An amendment by Rep. Weiner (D-NY) that bans foreign aid to Saudi Arabia.

· An amendment by Rep. Weiner (D-NY) that prohibits the use of funds to provide nonrecourse marketing assistance loans to mohair farmers.

· An amendment from Rep. Rooney (R-FL) that prohibits funding for the EPA to impose and enforce federally mandated numeric Florida water quality standards.

· An amendment from Rep. Stearns (R-FL) that prohibits funds for UN construction within the US.

· An amendment from Rep. Flake (R-AZ) that prohibits funds from being used to construct ethanol blender pumps or ethanol storage facilities.

· An amendment from Rep. Hall (R-TX) prohibiting funds to implement a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Service, part of the President’s fiscal year 2012 budget request.

· An amendment from Rep. Griffith (R-VA) prohibiting the EPA, Corps of Engineers and the Office of Surface Mining from implementing coordination procedures that have served to extend and delay the review of coal mining permits.

· An amendment from Rep. Jones (R-NC) that prohibits the use of funds from being used to develop or approve a new limited access privilege program – “catch-shares” – for any fishery under the jurisdiction of the South Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, New England or Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

· An amendment from Rep. Luetkemeyer (R-MO) that prohibits funds for the study of the Missouri river projects.

· An amendment from Rep. Luetkemeyer (R-MO) that prohibits the use of funds for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

· An amendment from Rep. Sullivan (R-OK) that blocks funds for the EPA to implement a waiver to increase the ethanol content in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent.

· An amendment from Rep. McKinley (R-WV) that prohibits funding for the EPA to deny proposed and active mining permits under Section 404 (c) of the Clean Water Act, specifically to revoke retroactively a permit for the Spruce Mine in West Virginia.

· An amendment from Rep. McKinley (R-WV) that prohibits funding for the EPA to implement regulations to designate coal ash reside as hazardous waste.

· An amendment from Rep. Pompeo (R-KS) that prohibits funds for a government sponsored “consumer products complaints database.”

· An amendment from Rep. Noem (R-SD) to prohibit funding for EPA to modify the national primary ambient air quality standards applicable to coarse particulate matter (dust).

· An amendment from Rep. Burgess (R-TX) that prohibits funds to implement a provision specific to the State of Texas in the “Education Job Fund.”

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Source: Appropriations.house.gov.

Congratulations to the Republicans in the House for the passage of this bill and allowing a free wheeling debate along with all the amendments. This is what the House is all about not a dictatorship like Pelosi when she was in charge. 

One of the favorites was the amendment by Cong Tom Cole (R-OK) that restricts public funds from being used for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund or political party conventions. This amendment correlates with the “YouCut” bill that passed the House in January, saving $38 million in fiscal year 2012.  Why should the taxpayers be expected to pay one red cent for political party conventions.  If the parties cannot raise enough money, put on a less elaborate convention. 

We love the EPA being a target as they have overstepped their authority time and time again going around Congress.  The only thing we would like better is to see the EPA defunded as a separate entity and put back in one of the cabinet departments.  They do not need to be a separate bureaucracy.