Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman and my good friend, Mr. McGovern, for the kind words. What we did here was simple. It is not always simple to get through the legislative process, but what we attempted to do was reauthorize a bill that hadn't been authorized. Appropriated dollars were being spent. It has been the focus of the Republican Congress to make sure we reauthorize programs, and we do that to fix things that have gone wrong over the years or because a changing environment has occurred. The last time the bill was really authorized was 2002. Fast-forward 15 years, there are things changed. The authorization amount was set. We actually spent more than the authorization amount. People love this program, but we have got to update it to the modern day, and we need to fix some of the items. Those are reflected in this bill, and I appreciate the Rules Committee hearing the debate, addressing some of the concerns, and deciding that this bill can come to the floor. As it was stated, no amendments were offered to debate on this floor, which I think is a great process. Simply put, I have a friend from Houston, Texas, who is very proud of the Houston Astros, and he will cite Minute Maid Park. Minute Maid Park is on a brownfields. So if you looked at the World Series and you saw that beautiful facility, well, that is the result of the brownfields program that we are now trying to update and fix. The stats are pretty clear.…”