Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from California for yielding. I do stand here as the former chairman of the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee who served alongside the distinguished delegate from the District of Columbia. For the years I was chairman, we worked very well together, and so it is a great disappointment that I come to the floor tonight when we thought we had an agreement. If fact, we did have an agreement. The chairman of the subcommittee and the chairman of the full committee were willing to accept the gentlelady's amendment and put it in the bill. But yet here we are today turning this into a partisan bill, which as I said is very disappointing. She said she couldn't come to the floor just on hope. She had more than hope; she had the word of the chairman of the subcommittee and the word of the chairman of the full committee. So I am here tonight in strong support of the Civilian Property Realignment Act. There are immediate savings: a savings up to $1 billion a year this year alone, and $15 billion over the next 10 years. It reduces the size of government. The commission was tasked with literally reducing the Federal footprint. And as we know, we have an example right down on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Old Post Office building is going to be put up for a long-term lease. We've got some of the premier hotel operators in the world that want to turn that into a first-rate premier hotel right on Pennsylvania Avenue.…”