mr. lankford. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for 3 1/2 minutes. mr. lankford: thank you, mr. speaker. i say i'd love for people to come to oklahoma city anytime they have the opportunity to do that. but to be able to talk to the great folks in my district, i can tell you one thing that comes up again and again, they are really frustrated and they're looking for things to really be able to change here in washington. they see how broken our system is. they see the way we interact. they're really legitimately frustrated. i can tell you they have lost trust in how we're doing and what we're doing. as a federal government we're trying to do too many things and we can't afford all the things we're doing. so in some very simple way this whole process has united the nation to be able to look simply at $14.3 trillion in debt and to say as a nation, we have a problem. that is a good first step. now, for the conversation that's been happening around congress over the past serviceable months now, it's now dealing with how do we resolve the problem and what is the

mr. lankford such time as he may corn. -- may consume of. -- consume. mr. lankford: i was 18 years old, i remember sitting down with my mom working through how to fill out a register on the checkbook and balance it, that's an essential characteristic of someone to handle their finances when they walk away to school. i remember walking through money in, money out, all that process. it's such a simple process, so simple that when i talk to people back home in my district in oklahoma, republicans and democrats, i say what is your opinion on a balanced budget amendment, this is not a partisan issue. if we get away from the programs and stuff, we say, should we balance the budget every year? to a person, i hear people say yes. we get into conversations about the language, about exclusions, those are legitimate conversations i think we should have with the american people but in reality, they cam bobbing to the same thing, we should balance the budget. i've seen statistics that as high as 80% of the american people want a balanced budget. i think there are multipl

mr. lankford's comments, he is one great encouragement to many of us. he's living proof that the cavalry a have arrived and he is an example of why this debate has changed and i'm very grateful for his presence in the united states congress and i hope he's here a very long time. with that, i seek to yield to the gentleman from iowa, mr. king, for such time as he might consume. i might ask the speaker what the time remaining is at this point. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has about 13 minutes remaining. mr. franks: about 13 minutes remaining. i'm hoping to yield to the gentleman eight minutes or something along those lines. mr. king: i thank the gentleman from arizona for leading on this special order and all my colleagues who have come to the floor on this balanced budget amendment. i want to point a few things out as to where this sits. the chairman of the committee standing before me, mr. franks, has presided over the shaping of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. i certainly favor the one offered by bob goodlatte and mark

mr. lankford talking about the audit contractors and ms.ing, you reference that it is a contingent fee approach, but if what they find is overturned on appeal, then iraq's are not allowed to keep that. that assumes there is an appeal made. i guess my question is, how easy is an appeal down? what is the cost of doing a? what i am wondering is if somebody has made improper payments, are they going to weigh, give up the money, don't bother doing an appeal. so the rack still get paid even though it may not have been a legitimate improper payment. >> is sort of a tough question to answer, although it ain't initially and i presumed in the national program are sort of going after big ticket items. so if you are a provider and an impatient will service and there's a lot of money on the line, i would think you're more likely to appeal than not. >> ms. snider, i don't know if you have anything to add on that? >> i was just going to say i was a there have been a robust appeals process. the provider community hasn't been shy about pushing back. when th

mr. lankford. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for 3 1/2 minutes. mr. lankford: thank you, mr. speaker. i say i'd love for people to come to oklahoma city anytime they have the opportunity to do that. but to be able to talk to the great folks in my district, i can tell you one thing that comes up again and again, they are really frustrated and they're looking for things to really be able to change here in washington. they see how broken our system is. they see the way we interact. they're really legitimately frustrated. i can tell you they have lost trust in how we're doing and what we're doing. as a federal government we're trying to do too many things and we can't afford all the things we're doing. so in some very simple way this whole process has united the nation to be able to look simply at $14.3 trillion in debt and to say as a nation, we have a problem. that is a good first step. now, for the conversation that's been happening around congress over the past serviceable months now, it's now dealing with how do we resolve the problem and what is the