mr. speaker , i thank the chairman for yielding , and i want to commend him for producing a very good bill , and i want to commend the full committee chairman , mr. lewis . 
i came to congress 11 years ago , and over that 11-year time period , i have seen the size of this bill more than double . 
the working families in my congressional district have not seen their incomes double in that time period . 
we have seen unprecedented challenges that we have had to face this year , hurricane katrina , recovery from that , hurricane wilma , which significantly affected my district and the state i live in , and then , of course , we are fighting a war , a war on terror in this country . 
this is a very , very responsible bill . 
it is a good bill . 
i just ask all members to keep in mind , you will hear statements that this bill is going to devastate health care in america . 
we have an over $ 13 trillion economy . 
we spend more than 17 percent on health care . 
the discretionary accounts in this bill represent less than one-tenth of 1 percent of total health care expenditures . 
this is a very , very good bill . 
it is a very responsible bill , and it is good policy . 
i am a conservative . 
i came here to act in a responsible fashion , and that is what this bill does . 
i encourage all my colleagues to vote for it . 
and i again commend the chairman . 
