Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam Chair, and I am sorry the minority didn't have a copy of this fine amendment. It was modified slightly from the original submission to comply with the requirements of the Parliamentarian to be in order. Let me say at this late hour I won't take too much time. I am from the authorizing side, and it's always good to come here and hear the difficulties that the appropriators have in trying to make choices, and tonight is about making choices. I do have to compliment Mr. Simpson, the chair of the subcommittee; Mr. Hastings, the chair of the full committee; and the ranking members, Mr. Moran and Mr. Dicks, for their efforts, being up late at night and making these difficult choices in some very tough economic times. Normally, I wouldn't come here and tell you what to do; but, again, coming from a State that has some 11 parks and preserves and national monuments, I have a great interest in some of these accounts. Now, we all have to set priorities; and as I said, these are difficult times. The Department of the Interior, I noticed, had, I guess, in 2010 just under $11 billion that's being cut to $9.8 billion, a 7 percent reduction. People ask me about transportation projects. Whether it is FAA, on transportation, I'm reducing some of the accounts by 30 percent in authorization, so I know the difficulty you're facing. Now, I also looked at some of the other accounts here. EPA, I think folks would be shocked to find EPA has $7.1 billion in this bill.…”