Kendrick Meek: “my amendment does not include an offset. This VA-HUD bill is already terribly underfunded as it is. The chairman and the…”

“my amendment does not include an offset. This VA-HUD bill is already terribly underfunded as it is. The chairman and the ranking member have worked very hard to try to get us better funding than we have, but we are still in that position. We are tied down by the constraints, our own constraints. We put an albatross around our own necks. When we go back to our communities, our people will not know anything about offsets. They do not know anything about that. But they do know when their communities are crumbling under their feet. So I am hoping that no one will make that point of order, that this House will adopt my amendment today and adequately fund the CDBG program, the lives of those who have been left behind by the booming national economy. I spent some time on Wall Street the other day, Mr. Chairman. I was shocked. I am a senior citizen. I have never been on Wall Street where I was at the Stock Exchange. And it was marvelous to see where the money is turned over. But do my colleagues know what? It is not getting back to those communities, to those poor people whose government can help these people.”