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Appropriations Request Application
AppPage
As a Member of the House Committee on Appropriations, I serve on three
Subcommittees in the 111th Congress. These include the Military
Construction and Veterans Affairs, the Financial Services and General
Government, and the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittees.
As you may know, Congress annually considers several appropriations
measures, which provide funding for numerous activities including
national defense, education, and homeland security, as well as general
government operations. Appropriations measures are under the
jurisdiction of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. These
measures provide only about 40% of total federal spending for a fiscal
year. The House and Senate legislative committees control the rest.
There are three types of appropriations measures. Regular
appropriations bills provide most of the funding that is provided in
all appropriations measures for a fiscal year, and must be enacted by
October 1 of each year. If regular bills are not enacted by the
deadline, Congress adopts continuing resolutions to continue funding
generally until regular bills are enacted. Supplemental appropriations
bills provide additional appropriations and are typically considered
during a fiscal year.
Setting policy and project priorities are an essential legislative
responsibility. As you know, the U.S. Constitution entrusts Congress
to direct all federal funding. All congressionally directed funding
requests that I submit are carefully reviewed and vetted,
transparently submitted to the appropriate committee, publicly vetted
by congressional committees, and in compliance with legislative rules.
When properly considered through both the congressional authorization
and appropriations processes, congressionally directed funding requests
are an important legislative tool essential to a representative form of
government. This process allows representatives accountable to those
who sent them to Washington to identify critical and important local
and state funding needs. Without this process, unelected bureaucrats
would be free to designate critical projects across the nation without
taking into account the needs and requirements as identified by the
directly elected representatives of the people. These decisions would
be made without public hearings, congressional oversight or
consultation.
In exercising this important legislative responsibility, I prioritize
key transportation, infrastructure, economic development, community
improvement and other important needs of the cities and communities in
the 4th District. Below please a complete list of the congressionally
directed funding requests that I have vetted and submitted for
consideration for funding in fiscal year 2010.
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