Political Quotes

“The bill before us today is born out of the need for reform. It consolidates disparate grant programs and provides discretion to the Secretary. These reforms include funding reductions, requirements for measurement, and requirements for spending languishing dollars. The consolidation of this bill forces the Secretary to examine the intelligence and risk and put scarce dollars where they're needed most, whether it's a port, rail, surveillance, or access and hardening of 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 many programs or granting funds to lower risk. Additionally, as noted by the gentleman, the bill limits Urban Area Security Initiative grants to the top 10 highest cities. Again, this puts scarce dollars to where they are needed most. That means that cities like New York are funded at significantly higher levels than other cities because they are the highest-rent urban areas. I don't think anyone here can argue with that. This does not mean lower-risk areas will lose all funding. It just means that 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 by aligning funding with the areas of highest risk and vote ``no'' on this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.”