“The American people want Congress to change the way we spend the people’s money.”

Washington, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks today in support of earmark reform legislation introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA):

"The American people are tired of borrowing and spending and bailouts in Washington DC. They've gathered in town hall meetings, and tea parties, and rallies across this country for the last year-and-a-half to say "enough is enough." But it's not just runaway federal spending. The American people also want Congress to change the way we spend the people's money.

"And House Republicans took a historic step this year when we embraced a unilateral one-year ban on all earmarks. I commend Congressman Goodlatte, and stand with my other leaders in Congress to say that we should not only embrace a unilateral one-year ban on earmarks, but we should use the savings that the ban will impose to reduce the deficit. We should initiate a process to begin to literally change the way we spend the people's money going forward.

"But my focus today is simply to call on Speaker Pelosi to put the American people's money where her mouth is, to join us, Madame Speaker, in this unilateral one-year moratorium. And let's go to work in a bipartisan way to fundamentally restore public confidence in the budget process here in Washington, DC."

Background
The resolution introduced by Rep. Goodlatte would require that money saved from the Republican ban on earmarks be put toward deficit reduction. The resolution would also create a bipartisan and bicameral committee to review and overhaul the budgetary, spending, and earmark process. ###

Contact Matt Lloyd or Mary Vought at (202) 226-9000 or matt.lloyd@mail.house.gov

Peter Roskam Calls for Swift Action on Iran Sanctions VIDEO

“Thank you Mr. Speaker and I thank the Gentle Lady for yielding. You know, not long ago I was briefed by an official on Iran’s provocative action and he gave a challenge in that briefing.

He said, print out on your computer a red line. Print a big thick red bar on a white sheet of paper. And if you look at it from a distance you think it’s a solid red line, but if you look at it up close, what you’ll see is that it’s actually a series of tiny little pink lines all pushed together, but they’re individual little pink lines.

And he said that what Iran has figured out is they have figured out a way to break through one tiny little line at a time. Just one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. And that is why we’re here today, because we in the west, we in the United States, are on to what the Iranian leadership is doing.

They’re being incredibly provocative. There is no legitimate nuclear ambition for Iran, this is a regime that has said that Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East has no right to exist. They’ve said one provocative thing after another, and history is filled, Mr. Speaker, of examples of weakness and ambiguity in foreign affairs. What is the result? Largely, the result is calamity.

Now we have a chance to be united, for all of us to come together, to say we’re not going to stand for this, we’ve come up with a remedy, and it is time for the conferees to move forward, and to create these very tough and solid sanctions against the petroleum products going into Iran.

I urge the conferees to move quickly, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Washington, Apr 22 - Deputy Republican Whip Peter Roskam (R-IL) Iran Remarks Delivered On The House Floor April 22, 2010