Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. ADERHOLT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, this is my first appropriation bill to help manage on the floor, and I have very much enjoyed the process and consider it a real privilege to have this honor to do it.

I do want to commend the Chair, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, for her professional and her courteous manner in the way that she has conducted the process over the last several months for producing the fiscal year 2010 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. We have worked closely and very much in the spirit of bipartisanship to meet the funding needs of the legislative branch agencies. In addition, the Chair operated under an open process and was responsive to the concerns and input of all the members of this committee.

Madam Speaker, I will say it is unfortunate that the bipartisan approach taken by our committee stopped at the doors of the Rules Committee. I understand that the rule accompanying this bill, the Legislative Branch Appropriation bill, has historically been a structured rule. Traditionally, while not all amendments filed with the Rules Committee have been made in order, a much more balanced approach has been taken than what we are seeing today. Twenty amendments were filed with the Rules Committee and only one was made in order. While I may not have personally supported some of the amendments, I do feel strongly that Members should be permitted to debate the issues of concern to them. Members have once again been denied the right to offer amendments to an appropriation bill, a trend that's happening more often than not.

That being said, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, did its work and we addressed the many competing priorities and individual agency challenges.

The committee has reduced the fiscal year 2010 requested increase of 15 percent down to 6.8 percent, a reduction of $282 million. However, it is important to distinguish that nearly one-quarter of this increase, or $60 million, is for the establishment of the Historical Buildings Revitalization Trust Fund. When you take this into account, the agencies will be operating on an average of a 5.2 increase over the last year. This funding allows the committee to continue to focus on critical life safety issues surrounding the Capitol complex and to maintain adequate funding of current staff operations.

Among the highlights of the bill is $1.375 billion for the expenses of the House of Representatives. This provides an appropriate level of funding for the Members' representational allowances, the ability to address the much-needed new voting system, additional benefits for House employees, and a new House I.D. badge system. For the United States Capitol Police, $325 million will be included. This amount supports the current sworn strength at 1,799 positions and fully funds the implementation costs of the merger with the Library of Congress Police. The Architect of the Capitol, excluding Senate items, is funded at $541 million and supports the top 20 construction projects. All life safety projects, significant investment in energy and saving efforts, and almost $70 million worth of deferred maintenance projects have been funded in this bill.

And we have started a very needed new initiative, the Historic Buildings Revitalization Trust Fund, to begin to address the Capitol complex's deteriorating infrastructure. For the Library of Congress, $647 million is included, and it includes $15 million for the beginning of needed new technology investments. The Government Printing Office is to continue the development of the Federal digital system and is included at $7 million, and in order to meet the congressional demands, additional workforce is provided for the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office.

In conclusion, H.R. 2918 is a well-rounded bill and adequately addresses the needs of the legislative branch.

Again, I would like to express my thanks to the Chair for her bipartisanship and how she has conducted this subcommittee over the last several months that we've had the hearings and as we have worked together on this bill. I also do want to thank the majority staff, Mike Stephens, David Marroni, Matt Glassman, and Ian Rayder, for their help with this bill; and, of course, on my side of the aisle, on the minority's side, Liz Dawson, Jennifer Kisiah, and Megan Medley with my office to make sure that this bill goes through as it has successfully over the last several months. So, again, I thank all the people who were involved.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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