Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to speak on H.R. 4213. One amendment has already been dropped. I do plan to submit a second amendment. This amendment is dealing with the Recovery Act funds. During my three terms as State comptroller of Illinois, I worked very hard to maintain accountability for the money we spent from our State. I have been contacted by my State officials, the various auditors, comptrollers, and treasurers, to say the stimulus money that is coming into the States is coming in and they have no funds to do all this transparency and accountability. I put an amendment on this bill to say that we should. I filed amendment No. 3388 which addresses currently underfunding the costs of tracking and reporting the stimulus money. This measure would set aside up to one half of 1 percent of all existing stimulus funds and allow States and local governments to use this administrative expense reserve to distribute and track this money as it is received and spent. It would allow the American people to hold their representatives accountable and it would help ensure that every dollar is targeted effectively and spent wisely, without waste, fraud, or abuse. Agreeing to this amendment will restore oversight to this process and will keep Americans on the road to economic recovery without incurring a dime of new spending. In addition to restoring accountability, I believe we need to take an active role--as my second amendment would do, which I have not dropped yet; it is coming, though.…”