John Rice Carter: “The bill before us today was born out of a need for reform. It consolidates disparate grant programs, provides…”

“The bill before us today was born out of a need for reform. It consolidates disparate grant programs, provides discretion to the Secretary while balancing fiscal discipline. In total, this bill provides for $2.5 billion for Homeland Security First Responder Grants. This is $400 million above the President's request for fiscal year 2014 and $35 million above fiscal year 2013. This bill prioritizes our funding. The consolidation in this bill forces the Secretary to examine the intelligence and risk and put scarce dollars where they are needed most, whether it is port, rail, surveillance, or access and hardening projects, or whether it is to high-risk urban areas or to States, as opposed to reverse engineering projects to fill the amount designated for one of many programs. This does not mean lower-risk cities will lose all funding. It means the funds will come from other programs, such as State homeland grants that are risk-and formula-based. I strongly urge my colleagues to support fiscal discipline and vote ``no'' on this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.”