Political Quotes

“I would just remind the gentleman from New Jersey that this bill was passed in September by this House and has been sitting in the Senate since September. Even though the President's own appointee, Director Fugate, has been asking for this bill, it has been sitting. So we're looking forward to a bipartisan solution that gets done before March so we can actually help out the Sandy relief fund. I would just like to point to a couple quick facts. The New Orleans Youth Study Center project, as an example, as you'll see from this chart, Katrina was in 2005. Here's what the Governor's office has put together. This one project isn't going to be done until 2016. After 182 meetings and 7 years of bureaucratic red tape, this one project won't be done until 2016; and that's if all goes well, that's when Louisiana hopes to finish this. That's 11 years after Hurricane Katrina. The single biggest factor in cost increases is time, and these delays will almost double the project from $15 million to $28 million. FEMA has spent almost $5 million on a temporary facility alone. There are literally thousands of projects like this across the gulf coast, and there will be thousands more of budget-busting projects in New York and New Jersey if we don't get these reforms signed into law. At this time, Madam Speaker, I'd like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Palazzo).”