Barney Frank: “Mr. Chairman, I know we are all eager to conclude, but I did feel the need to speak. We have had a number of amendments…”

“Mr. Chairman, I know we are all eager to conclude, but I did feel the need to speak. We have had a number of amendments today, and I find myself in the unusual position, as someone who has been on the Subcommittee on Housing for 18 years, of not really being able to enthusiastically get involved in the amendment process because some things are beyond repair, and this bill is one of them. It is no reflection on either the chairman or the ranking member. They have, in my experience, done in the past and continue to do an excellent job with what they are given to work with. But what they have been given to work with in this bill is a disgrace. There is hardly an aspect of this important appropriations bill which comes close to being adequately funded, and we ought to be clear that this is a reflection of the outrageous, crabbed, insensitive, socially-destructive priorities that are now governing this Congress. What is particularly interesting, I think, is that there are probably 80 percent of the Members who have told some group that, yes, they wish we could have given them more money in veterans' health, in Section 8 housing, in brownfields, in the cleanup of Superfund sites. Everybody here, close to everybody, is for more money.…”