On the recordMay 1, 2014
This amendment cuts the small inflationary increase of $243,000 provided to the Capitol Visitor Center in this bill. This small increase is needed for the Capitol Visitor Center to keep up with inflation in order to provide the same level of service to our constituents next year as they are providing this year. When is enough enough? My colleague must not be aware that the Capitol Visitor Center is 7 percent below the funding level that they were in fiscal year 2010. They have already contributed their fair share to deficit reduction. If my colleague is serious about reducing the national debt and the deficit, then I would suggest that he stop voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act because the recent CBO estimate is that there would be a net increase of $109 billion to the deficit between 2013 and 2022 if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. Perhaps he can call on his own leadership to reduce the deficit by $900 million by taking up and passing comprehensive immigration reform. When I was chair of this subcommittee, I inherited a fiscal disaster in cost overruns during the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center. We were collaboratively and in a bipartisan way able to bring that project in for a soft landing and slow the hemorrhaging of Federal funds for a project that a Republican majority began.…





