heard a lot of members of congress talking about sequestration, like senator mccain, senator levin, norm dicks, congressman welch, a bunch of others. i thought i might hear something new. i wasn't surprised i didn't hear much new. a couple things. washington loves to dust off the old plan that died before there was the new plan and recycle ideas when we have to come up with a new solution. i just figure i'd tell you what was going on before so you know where everyone is going to go. all the things we're going to turn back to when we have to have this conversation in the lame duck. may or may not be the right solution, but we're not going to r resurrect big, bold, new ideas. i've met with senator warner's staff. a lot of them want that grand bargain. they're not talking about it publicly, but there is the will there. it's not all gloom and doom. nonetheless, what are the old plans that died before we had the bca and are going to get resurrected?

first of all, to chairman rogers of kentucky and his working partner, congressman norm dicks, on behalf oaf this committee, we want to thank you for giving us full support, bipartisan support, and giving us the flexibility to have a numb of hearings, to do a comprehensive approach through that hearing process and your insistence, both of you, on what we call regular order, the ability of the appropriations committee to work in a bipartisan way. i shopt comment on the house in general but in terms of our committee, there's been bipartisan -- good -- a good bipartisan working relationship. you have laid the foundation for mr. visclosky and me to sort of proceed in regular order. we're grateful. i would also like to thank the members for their cooperation in terms of amendments. i think we started maybe last year with 140 amendments. a lot of amendments were drawn into a unanimous consent situation so we have been able to reduce the amendments and members have come to the floor, spoken on an expeditious basis and i think performed admirably. i think they made our bill better and more cromp

in addition, congressman norm dicks from the state of washington who will be leaving this year, has heardeak on the floor about this accident and he also wants to join in clearing the names of these two pilots. mr. speaker, i also want to thank attorney jim furman in texas. attorney jim furman represented connie gruber and trish brow in the lawsuit against bill boeing. in addition, brian alexander and his society, frances young, were the attorneys for the 17 marine families. so those two attorneys, jim furman and brian alexander, have joined any in -- me in clearing the names of john brow and brooks gruber and, mr. speaker, i must state that they won their case against bill boeing. the amount of money allotted to the families has been secured so therefore no one knows except the families. but it tells me a whole lot when a manufacturing company decides that they would rather settle out of court than take the case to court. the assistant secretary of defense and director of operational tests and evaluation in the department of defense at the time of this accident has also joined us in clea

conference, i heard a lot of members talking about sequestration, senator mccain, senator levin, norm dick, congressman welch. i thought i might hear something new. i did not hear much new. the couple of things. washington loves to dust off the old plan that died before there was the new plan and recycle old ideas. you know where everyone is going to go. all of the things are going to turn back. it the right solution. we are not going to resurrect big ideas. steve made a good point about the grand bargain. i have met with senator warner;s staff. a lot of members want the grand bargain. it is not all gloom and doom houghm. , what of the old plans? -- what are the old plans? tax increases are not going to pay down sequestration. there is no dollar for dollar offset. since then with obamacare. -- same thing with obamacare. the president's commission, that is the favored position there was a lot of work and thought. what it gives us is the exact recipe that was outlined. there is more defense budget reductions beyond the $487 billion. if you break down the defense side, it is always great to l