Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this rule and the underlying bill. House Resolution 537 provides for a structured rule for consideration of H.R. 1734, the Civilian Property Realignment Act. The rule makes six amendments in order. Of these, five are Democrat- sponsored amendments and one is a Republican-sponsored amendment. The only amendments not made in order were either because of a lack of germaneness and/or they were duplicative in nature or the subject of other amendments. H.R. 1734 has come to the floor under regular order. The applicable subcommittee held two hearings specifically on this bill and held an additional six hearings on the subject of Federal property consolidation. The subcommittee held a markup and subsequently passed the bill out by voice vote. The full committee also held a markup during which several amendments were considered before the bill was reported out of committee. Further, H.R. 1734 enjoys a bipartisan list of cosponsors. The Civilian Property Realignment Act enjoys bipartisan support because it tackles an inherently bipartisan issue: making government work more efficiently in order to better safeguard taxpayer dollars. The Federal executive branch agencies hold an extensive real property portfolio that includes 429,000 buildings and over 1 million total properties. In fact, the Federal Government is the largest owner and manager of real estate in our country.…”