Mike Simpson

The arts are not just for urban areas; they are for those small towns out in rural Idaho and rural North Dakota.

I look forward to working with you to try to advance the arts in this country. You do an important job.

I went down to the Smithsonian the other day--and have any of you seen the art collection down there;

To me, it is not only wonderful for the arts, but it is wonderful for the economies of every community that we bring it to.

Ultimately we are responsible in Congress.

The American taxpayer looks at it as their tax dollars. They don't care if it goes to the NEA, the local people, or who it goes to.

The Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, doesn't view the Department of Transportation just as an engineering and road building agency.

This has a direct, demonstrable effect on local economies.

During the course of a very busy day, you had the opportunity to see firsthand the value of the arts in rural Idaho.

I want to join Chairman Moran in welcoming you to testify today on your fiscal year 2011 budget request.

I have little doubt that the collective we will have the foresight to address these and other items in a responsible fashion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing today.

Only 9 months ago, as the chairman mentioned, hate barged through the doors of the Museum and took an innocent life.

Let us talk a little bit about Our Town. Five million bucks. What can you do with $5 million dollars in terms of, I think you said, planning and design?

I have a soldier from my district, I happen to know his family, who is in jail now from Iraq.

But things are changing so rapidly, and the average student today is going to have to be retrained for a new job an average of seven times in his lifetime.

But I want you to know, Mr. Hinchey, seeing you are from New York, there were many on the other side of this issue too in New York.

I have been a long-time supporter of both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

My hope is that that will continue.

The success of both these organizations in recent years is largely the result of both the endowments making a conscious effort to provide a selection of quality educational programs reaching diverse cross sections of America without making…

Your service in the House is noteworthy for many legislative achievements, but to me your enduring legacy remains your unfailing sense of humility and civility.

The reason I ask the question is we hear all the time that Congress, since we are in Congress, is more uncivil than it has ever been.

My favorite reference is to Walt Whitman, who once defined America as an athletic democracy.

Is America less civil than it was a hundred years ago?

I feel very uncomfortable with the amount of money we are spending and how we are spending it.