Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, first of all, the President's Commission, in his BRAC, includes VA properties. As well, former VA Secretary Anthony Principi testified in front of our committee that we ought to be looking at all properties, including VA. If we're going to do the best interest of American taxpayers, we've got to address waste in government overall, across the entire Nation, across every agency. If there's a property not being used today, then we ought to look at either redeveloping it or selling it off. And this gives us an opportunity to have Republicans and Democrats come together on something that the President included in his jobs bill to actually create American jobs. The Old Post Office right here in Washington, DC is the perfect example of waste in government. We've had a property sitting well over a decade that costs us $6.5 million in upkeep every single year. Now we've got redevelopment happening, where we've got different hotel companies coming in and not only bidding on it, creating 150 new jobs in construction, but an additional 150 jobs in ongoing jobs once the facility is redone; keeping it in its historic fashion and actually being able to utilize it once again; an opportunity to redevelop things that aren't being used today, but also selling off things that have been sitting for decades. Our Federal Government has a horrible track record of selling properties that aren't being used. In fact, we've sold 82 properties in the last 25 years.…”