John W. Olver: “I rise in strong opposition to the amendment. Actually this is about the worst kind of amendment that you can have…”

“I rise in strong opposition to the amendment. Actually this is about the worst kind of amendment that you can have, because it provides no indication of priorities whatsoever. It just cuts everything in the whole government an equal percentage amount and gives no priority indication whatsoever. Let me tell you what this amendment ends up doing. In the Department of Housing and Urban Development, this amendment would mean a reduction of more than $3 billion for section 8 tenant based vouchers. Simply, that means that about 450,000 of this country's lowest income citizens would no longer be able to afford their monthly rent. In addition, the project based section 8 program would see about a $1.7 billion reduction in it, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Americans there unable to afford a roof over their head. Homelessness would be increased dramatically and more Americans would require assistance through HUD's homeless program. Unfortunately, the homeless program would itself be receiving a massive cut of nearly $400 million, making service at the current levels quite impossible, at the same time that we would be creating more homeless people. In the Department of Transportation, this amendment would eliminate more than $3 billion worth of funding from the Federal Aviation Administration. That would just about assure a part-time air traffic control system which would put us in severe safety jeopardy.”