Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of our subcommittee for yielding, and I want to join him in opposing this amendment. This is an indiscriminate amendment. It cuts programs in transportation and housing without any thought as to their relative merits. It is the opposite of intelligent appropriating. For example, this would result in fewer air traffic controllers, fewer pipeline safety inspectors, and the eviction--literally, the eviction--of elderly and disabled tenants. More generally, investments in our transportation and housing infrastructure would be altered. The associated jobs would be lost. This bill is already underfunded, Mr. Chairman. It has got to be revisited when we have a budget agreement that lets us do a decent job with this bill. So this amendment goes in exactly the wrong directions. It would encourage the agencies not to do more with less, but to do less with less, and it would be a body blow to our constituents and our communities. Mr. Chairman, I strongly urge opposition to the amendment.”