Mike Quigley: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Madam Chair, I first want to thank Chairman Graves, whom I had the privilege of…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Madam Chair, I first want to thank Chairman Graves, whom I had the privilege of working with for a second year in managing this bill. Our discussions have been both passionate and productive, and I thank him for always allowing for vigorous debate throughout the process. And, of course, I would again like to thank the staff on both sides for their work behind the scenes that went into preparing this bill for floor consideration. In particular, I would like to recognize and thank committee staff on the minority side, Lisa, Chris, Angela, Martha, as well as Doug from my personal office. But with that said, I continue to strongly oppose the bill before us today. Given its flat allocation of $23.4 billion, this bill does not adequately meet the growing needs of our small businesses, taxpayers, and middle class consumers and investors. To be fair, I do want to acknowledge how pleased I was to see increased funding for the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Federal Defender Services, and the Small Business Administration, three very different priorities, each critical in its own right; but this does not negate the cuts suffered by some of our most important agencies tasked with missions ranging from policing Wall Street to supporting investment in our most underserved communities.…”