Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I must rise today in opposition to the amendment offered by my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Alabama, on which I am the ranking member. While I support the efforts of the gentleman to ensure that the Community Development Institution Fund is efficiently and effectively administered, I vigorously oppose the proposed freeze of the Community Development Financial Institution Fund at the fiscal year 1997 levels. I am a little bit surprised at the tone and spirit of this attack. Let us be clear. This is an attack on small business. The small businesses of this country that benefit from this fund are the ones that we all talk about we want to help. These are small institutions such as credit unions and others providing the funds for these businesses. I am surprised at this attack in the way that it has been done because most people do not know that this Fund is kind of divided into two parts. We have the small nontraditional institutions that provide monies to small businesses in inner cities and rural communities. This is not a minority program, as it was referred to a moment ago; I want to set the record straight.”