Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I do want to take a little extra time to mention some things connected to this that I think need to come to our colleagues' attention. First of all, this is not an ideal offset that Mr. Nadler has chosen. This is simply an example of the problem we have had all evening. Any funding amendment will fill only one hole by digging another, and so that is just the reality we are dealing with. I do support this amendment. It runs the risk of further delaying HUD's acquisition of improved IT systems. We are going to need to attend to that. In this bill, HUD's IT account is already $150 million below the fiscal year '15 level and $234 million below the President's request. This is not an account that has a lot to spare, so I hope we can revisit that. It may be relatively easy to target this funding line. We have got to provide HUD with the tools it needs to properly administer HOPWA and other programs. We need, of course, eventually, a bipartisan budget agreement that will allow for a more credible bill that will adequately fund HOPWA and HUD's IT account both, both of those. Let me say, Mr. Chairman, I, in addition, hope that the chairman and other longtime supporters of HOPWA are going to be able to work--we are all going to be able to work together moving forward to get this HOPWA formula updated once and for all.…”