Political Quotes

“It is sort of ironic that under the previous Congresses, their idea of fiscal discipline was to raise the debt ceiling to $9 trillion, I find that interesting, while at the same time we have seen homeland security funding only being paid lip service to and not really being taken care of. As you know, nine out of 10 Americans live in areas that are prone to natural disasters, and of course we're not prepared to take care of them. The Coast Guard itself said that we are only 25 percent along the way to meeting the needs to protect our ports, that 75 percent of those needs have gone unmet in homeland security. We can fulfill the 9/11 Commission requests here, H.R. 1, take care of those funding priorities that make us all safer. The cuts to first responders I can't believe. The State Homeland Security grants, I just want to make a quick list here, the administration cut it by $705 million. The Urban Area Security Initiative, cut by $9 million. Fire grants, the very grants that protect us in the rural areas, cut by $463 million by the administration. The Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, zeroed out, eliminated entirely. The COPS program, cut by $599 million.”