Political Quotes

“I will yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I know that significant issues still remain with the Civilian Property Realignment Act in its current form. The gentleman discussed the potential savings from this bill. To be clear, this is a transfer of items that are already in the asset column of the Federal Government. It's not the creation of new value or new money out of nothing. It simply turns assets into cash. We need cash. We have a large deficit to cover. It makes sense to sell excess properties, but this money doesn't come from nowhere. Once those properties are sold, those will no longer be on the ledgers of the Federal Government. Now, it does save significant operating capital and maintenance of these unnecessary properties; but, again, I think common sense would indicate that if the commission costs $20 million to set up, with the various people involved with this process, we should specify where that money is coming from in the bill. And I think that there would be a way to do that on a bipartisan basis. Given all the concerns that remain with this bill regarding how it's paid for, the homeless situation, and the NEPA, the environmental review protections, we should be engaging in an open process, not one that limits and shuts down debate. The American people are frustrated that this Congress refuses to consider bipartisan-supported balanced bills that would stimulate job growth in our country and restore fiscal responsibility.…”