Political Quotes

“I will vote for passage of this bill with reluctance. Congress should not continue to add more funds to appropriations bills that exceed what the administration suggests is needed. This appropriations bill provides $666 million more than the administration requested in their budget. The bill provides $25.1 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, $8.8 billion more than fiscal year 1997 and $550 million more than the president requested. The bill represents no solution to the ``section 8'' funding that will be a huge financial challenge in the next several years. One other area that could well assist the conference committee to reduce appropriations to last year's levels are the substantial reserves now being held as ``contract reserves'' for section 8 tenant-based contracts. The accounting firm Price Waterhouse has audited the reserve numbers. Their preliminary estimate of the net excess section 8 budget authority minus HUD's proposed uses is $7.2 billion. GAO estimates the ``reserves'' could be much higher. We need better information from HUD. Congress should not continue to accept sloppy management in our Government departments.”