Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in respectful opposition to this amendment by my good friend from Pennsylvania. The Southwest Border Regional Commission encompasses all five of the counties that I represent in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, in addition to 88 other counties in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and California. While I appreciate the sentiment of this amendment to rein in Federal funding that I think we can all agree on, cutting funding from the Commission is not the way to do so. Of the approximately 35 million people the Commission serves, nearly 5 million live in poverty. Additionally, of all the regional commissions, the Southwest Border Regional Commission has the largest population, about 2.4 million people living in the most severely economically distressed counties. These are communities that are dealing with drought, economic downfall, and overstretched resources as we see record-high levels of illegal immigration along the southwest border. Many of the people live in designated health professional shortage areas and lack access to clean water and also other necessities. The Southwest Border Regional Commission finally received its first Federal co-chair just last December. That means that it was just recently allowed to begin convening and to begin activities.…”