Jerry Lewis: “Mr. Chairman, as I indicated earlier, much of this information and these expressions of concern were not available to…”

“Mr. Chairman, as I indicated earlier, much of this information and these expressions of concern were not available to the committee when we discussed it at the appropriations level and this increased appropriations was recommended. Nonetheless, I am very interested in this program and its potential positive effect on the communities out there. I want to make sure that the committee is doing all that it can to make certain that funds made available by way of an appropriate and objective application process get to the very people we are all concerned about here. With that, that the committee does want to continue to look very, very carefully, Mr. Chairman, I do not pretend to have the expertise of the people on the Committee on Banking and Financial Services that suggested that perhaps there should be an increase and the budget process did that as well, but I am not sure they had all this information, either. In the meantime, while I would discontinue my own personal remarks regarding this matter, I would like to yield to my two colleagues here who have been leading the way in connection with this and pursue this to the point that satisfies them as we close down the discussion on this amendment.”