Frank Riggs: “I really question this money coming into this bill, being spent for, I think, very questionable or nebulous purposes…”

“I really question this money coming into this bill, being spent for, I think, very questionable or nebulous purposes, particularly when again those of us who serve on the authorizing committee were not consulted about this money, and this money again is apparently being made available in an effort to, if you will pardon the expression, buy Democrat votes for this bill. I might also point out, and I do not usually get personal in debate, but we are attempting to do this now to accommodate one individual Member of the House out of 435 Members of the House, the distinguished ranking member of the subcommittee and full committee, who is opposed to us on the majority side of the aisle on every single major policy initiative in this Congress, whether we are talking about welfare reform in the last Congress, the bipartisan agreement to balance the budget in this Congress, or tax relief for American families and businesses. So I again have to really question what the thinking and philosophy is behind the crafting of this legislation, and suggest to my colleagues that we can find better ways to spend this money on Republican education priorities.”