John Tierney: “I thank the gentleman. I think it is reprehensible, actually, that the majority has chosen to go with the Ryan budget…”

“I thank the gentleman. I think it is reprehensible, actually, that the majority has chosen to go with the Ryan budget numbers over the agreement that was reached last August. I think it has put the chairman and ranking member and the members of that committee in a terrible position. We can see it just by the juxtaposition of two programs here that obviously people think have merit on this aspect. As much as taking $10 million from the amount of money that otherwise would have gone to the Mars program would leave them $10 million less than they would have had, but $78 million more than otherwise was in there. Doing nothing with respect to this motion would lead to our Justice program with zero dollars in the House budget. So I am thinking that we'll take a vote here; and if we pass, I hope that the committee is able to work with the Senate to bring the Mars program back to where people want it to be. I am hoping from what I have heard here that people think there is merit to our district attorneys and our public defenders as having some money in their accounts so that they can have good qualified people moving our justice system forward, and they will take care of that in conference.…”