Senate Proceeding on Apr 1st, 2009 :: 10:04:35 to 10:14:40
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10:04:31 to 10:04:51( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: amendment number mr. president, i -- i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the se mr. brownback: mr. president, i will be calling up tomorrow amendment number 840 and it's an amendment i've putorward before. it's an amendment actually that passed this body last year in the budget debate about it, i think and it's one

10:04:35 to 10:14:40( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Sam Brownback

10:04:52 to 10:05:12( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: of those things that we really need to do as far as being able to try to be efficient with government programs and effective and make sure that we have -- if we have waste, fraud and abuse programs, that they get eliminated now, i draw my colleagues to a report card -- i don't know if they know this but the federal government itself does a report

10:05:13 to 10:05:35( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: card on i wa itself or whether or not its programs are meeting the design o the p put forward, are meeting the criteria of the program that was put f then this is scored by the federal government itself and gives a -- gives and i'm not very pleased to note to my colleagues and to the

10:05:36 to 10:05:56( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: public that the federal government giving itself a grade card -- if did you it in c, d, you can see the federal government g.p.a. is 1.14 g.p.a. is what the federal government has for its own program, whether they pass or whether or not the program is duplicative, whether or not the

10:05:57 to 10:06:18( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: program has accomplished its purpose, whether or not t pr you can down through here and you can see state department actually has the highest score that the government rates for its programs that were whether or not they're hitting the targets that the program was designed to do. and that the highest score they get is c-plus. then you can see down her we've

10:06:19 to 10:06:40( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: got labor department education, all with failing scores and e.p.a., homeland security and d at interior, h.h.s., and justice. this is a bad report card. but it's just never seen as having much significance because nothing happens at the report -- at the end of the report card.

10:06:41 to 10:07:01( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: unlike for when i school or when my kids now are in school, there's a consequence to not getting a good grade and you try to improve it. on this one, there are kind of just no consequence to it. okay, we got an f. so what? because there's no consequence. wh consequence in to a federal program failing to meet its

10:07:02 to 10:07:23( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: target and that is this amendment. it's called "the commission on a budgetary accountability and review of federal agencies." it's called carfa. every four years each feder program would be reviewed. that program would be scored. if the progr receives an f, it

10:07:24 to 10:07:45( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: would be put in federal programs that all get failing scores and then be required upon to be voted on by this body or not the program is continued or not. alno bundle, all 500 programs, we would have to vote whether to

10:07:46 to 10:08:07( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: continue those programs or discontinue those programs all together, no time period for debate, deal or no deal. do we programs that have failed? do we keep them? this is a process that we have done on military bases it has worked. on consolidated bases from lower

10:08:08 to 10:08:30( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: priority to higher- t. hasn't but it's made it more efficient and effective. and that's what we should at least be looking at on the federal programs more efficient and more effective. that's what this amendment would do. and then you take your money -- and i had a group of college students in today. th to be able to do work programs

10:08:31 to 10:08:53( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: abroad and study abroad p programs, all which i think are great. about $3 billion. i'm going, you know, look, at the deficit we're looking at, that's just way too high. but what if you said okay, that's a good idea. or we want to declare war cancer? that's one that i think we ought to uptick on this is saying that we want to get a country that

10:08:54 to 10:09:14( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: within a decade, that th are -- there that there are no longer deaths by cancer united states. i mean, if you decide to take care of yourself and the right treerntle this is treated as a chronic disease, not a death sentence. now, there's something worth but typically what we do here is then okay, let's just put it in

10:09:15 to 10:09:35( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: ththe stack and we'll see if we can get it and it goes along with all the other programs, even though these programs are failing. and we just try to a what if you said okay, we're going to take the failing programs or within these agencies the failing programs out of it, we're going to eliminate it and we're going to take tt money and put it on higher-priority programs like a

10:09:36 to 10:09:56( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: war on cancer a work experience or maybe it's green jobs and new energy and a big energy project that we want to get more energy production from the united states. great. let's eliminate those that haven't worked and take that money and spend it on programs that are higher priority. or maybe these are programs that they've accomplished their purposes and we don't need them

10:09:57 to 10:10:17( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: any more. it's a novel notion that the idea that maybe the federal government started a program and it actually accomplished its purposes. we don't need it anymore so we should move on past itment and yet the way the budget process so often appropriations process works, once it gets in it never leaves.

10:10:18 to 10:10:39( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: and it just continues on and on and on rather than us reappraising in it or saying is it really meeting its need or is it not meeting its need. this is the way we get at waste, fraud, and abuse, duplication and programs that have accomplished their p everybody here in this body would declare themselves against waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government and say we're

10:10:40 to 10:11:00( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: going to get to the bottom this program ask we're going t to -- program and we're going to make sure it's efficient and effe 've heard that from president obama and, from every president that comes into office, that they're going to get at the bottom of this and they're going to make sure that these programs are work and they're efficient and they're effective. and yet the federal government giving itself its own scorecard ter president after president

10:11:01 to 10:11:21( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: saying this, and we've got a 1.14 grade average. most of the program be able to do that. and they say, well, so? it? we're going to continue to get our funding next year anyway. this is liberal presidents coming. we're always going to create make a better system and we're

10:11:22 to 10:11:42( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: going to stop this wastefulness and it just doesn't happen. this would get at it by putting a procedure in place, a required procedure that would cause these programs to be effective or face consequences. this is a sensible, bipartisan, good government, efficient way

10:11:43 to 10:12:03( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: to move forward. it will work and i something we need to do. i just, in closing on this, would ask that my colleagues would that if we t it passed again this year, not strip it

10:12:04 to 10:12:26( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: the conference report, that we would actually do something like this t. would send a credibility to the american public that we're actually going to go at programs and if they don't work, we're actually going to pull them out. and right now the public does not believe we will do that. this creates a culling process that you can have some credibility with

10:12:27 to 10:12:48( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: thnumber that you're actually -- you are going to eliminate programs that don't work, that have waste, fraud and abuse within them. we've had good bipartisan support of this idea and this proposal in the past i would hope we could have it again in this budget proposal. mr. president, overall on the budget, i still think we're

10:12:49 to 10:13:09( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: going seriously the wropg way. i did a -- seriously the wrong wall. i did a town hall meeting -- teletown hall meeting last night in my state in talking about the satisfied at all with this process. they think there's way too much deficit spending in it. they think it's failing to hit the mark. they're very upset about a lot of the bailouts for big entities

10:13:10 to 10:13:30( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: rather than what about us who's taking care of us? and they look at numbers and the tax increases that are probably going to come behind them, they just don't like it. and they don't agree with it. and they don't think that that's a way country. that what we ought to do is really get our house in order.

10:13:31 to 10:13:51( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: i'm pleased putting forward other options for how they caneal with the budget and with the deficit, and i would urge my colleagues to vote against this start let's get one that we can have a bipartisan agreement on. let's get one that cuts back on let's get one that doesn't raise taxes on americans.

10:13:52 to 10:14:17( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: let's get one that can really help umove forward in this crisis that we're in today rather than this one that's highly partisan, high the deficit oriented, highly tax increase oriented and is not supported by the vast majority of the mr. president, with that i would yield the floor and would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk

10:14:18 to 10:14:34( Edit History Discussion )

Sam Brownback: will call the roll. quorum call: