Political Quotes

“I rise to encourage support for H.R. 1612. Part of the discussion today was to say, from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, that it's a bad time to spend money on this program because unemployment is high and the deficit is high. I would respond that it is the perfect time for such investment. This program is an investment in reducing unemployment among young people and in the long run will save money by preventing these maintenance problems in our public lands from getting worse. I want to talk about what is in the bill. Much of the limitations that were talked about by my good friend are not part of--some of the points that he made are not even part of the legislation. But let's talk for a second what this bill does do. {time} 1115 H.R. 1612 will broaden the scope of the program to include more agencies within the Department of the Interior, NOAA, within the Commerce Department; to expand the purposes of this program to make clear that a central aim is to attract participants from diverse backgrounds who are underrepresented among visitors and managers of our public lands; require establishment of coordinators with each agency eligible to participate in the program so that implementation of the program will be more uniform and efficient; authorize these Federal agencies to enter into cooperative agreements with nonprofit youth or Conservation Corps to improve these partnerships; establish criteria and methodology for training programs for all participants; modern…”