Political Quotes

“I yield myself 4 minutes, and let me begin by thanking the chair of this committee and the ranking member of the committee for their diligence. We have obviously had a difficult task this budget year, given the constraints that we have; and I recognize this whole argument proceeds in that context. Let me begin by stating that this is a bipartisan amendment that speaks to a program that was created by George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, and by Jack Kemp, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 1989, the Bush administration came up with a striking insight, that rather than write off a lot of our inner-city neighborhoods, that we try to revitalize them; that we sustain a public and private commitment to draw resources back into the inner-city; and that we literally change the face of abandoned neighborhoods. And they encapsulated this vision as HOPE VI. It has been around for 16 years. It is very much a bipartisan creation, and it is zero funded at this point in this budget. Mr. Chairman, we ask that $60 million be added, which of course is literally 1 percent of the value of this whole appropriations bill; that $60 million be added to sustain this program and to allow its good works to go forward. And perhaps the best recommendation that I can offer comes not from my side of the aisle, but it comes, frankly, from the other side. Our friend and colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.…”