Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the American Relief Act. We all know the basis of this bill is a continuing resolution to fund the government and to prevent us from shutting down until sometime in the first quarter. I admit I think we all know a continuing resolution is neither the best way to fund our government nor be responsible for our taxpayers' dollars. We have an appropriations process that should work. To the credit of Chairman Cole, that did work through the Appropriations Committee. I certainly appreciate the chairman's strong leadership in getting us through that. It is noteworthy that he pointed out the Appropriations Committee by itself does not get to determine how we fund our government. We have got many needs and necessary reasons to keep our government functioning. The American people are counting on us. Our military and our border guards are counting on us. Our enemies are watching. We all know North Korea, Russia, China, and others do not have to face issues such as a government shutdown. Keeping the government open is critical to the district that I represent in western North Carolina. I would like to take a moment and speak specifically to the disaster relief portion of this bill. As most of my colleagues are aware, North Carolina was hit by Hurricane Helene on September 27 of this year. We experienced unprecedented disaster and destruction. It is going to cost North Carolina about $58 billion to rebuild.…”