Political Quotes

“I apologize that my objecting to the reading took longer than the reading, but we will try to get through this quickly. This amendment is straightforward and would simply reduce the amount appropriated for State and local programs in the bill by $412 million, making the amount available for the Homeland Security grants consistent with FY 2012 levels. I understand that some of these are popular programs, and I'm under no illusions about the prospect of this amendment. But I also understand that these programs were cut heavily last year within the fiscal year 2012 Homeland Security appropriations bill, but it was reported out of the committee with $1.3 billion cut from the previous year and a funding level $2.8 billion less than the President's request. By comparison, this $412 million cut looks a bit chintzy. There are good reasons for this. Setting aside the steep financial precipice that we find ourselves on, and we're still on, there are some problems with these programs that led to them being cut last year. According to the House appropriations report from 2012: ``These reductions are due to the persistent lack of quantifiable metrics that measure the additional capability that our Nation has gained for the billions of dollars that have been invested'' in these grant programs. In other words, we don't have good metrics actually to determine if this money is being spent well or not.…”