Hal Rogers: “I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I rise, obviously, in great support of this bill. This is the fourth of…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I rise, obviously, in great support of this bill. This is the fourth of the 12 appropriations bills that I hope to bring to the floor before August. It continues to move the ball down the field toward our goal of completing all of our appropriations work on time within the framework of the Ryan-Murray budget deal. The bill contains a fiscally responsible level of discretionary funding--$52 billion for the important Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, agencies that support critical transportation infrastructure, safety, and housing assistance programs. With this bill in particular, we had to make some smart but difficult decisions, as Mr. Pastor and Chairman Latham have said. Although the 302(b) allocation is $1.2 billion more than last year, when technical adjustments are taken into account, it is more than $1 billion below the current level. As Chairman Latham and Mr. Pastor have described, this is due to a considerable drop in Federal Housing Administration receipts that are used as offsets within this legislation. As a result, this bill, by necessity, strikes a fine balance between fiscal restraint and targeted investment in programs that will boost our economy, improve our quality of life, and provide housing options to those Americans most in need. One of our chief priorities in this bill is providing key infrastructure programs with the funding needed to keep our economy moving.…”