Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise, unfortunately, in opposition to the committee's bill. I have several concerns about this bill. One of those concerns I will raise in an amendment that I and the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer] will offer when we get to the NOAA section of the bill. The National Weather Service is undergoing a major modernization and will be closing offices all over the country. While I and other Members support that modernization, I do not want some Government bureaucrat determining that my weather service office will be closed. I want more protection than that, and I and other Members of Congress have fought very hard to make sure that we have that kind of protection, and we have been denied that so far. Mr. Chairman, currently a process exists in law to require the Secretary of Commerce to certify that such weather services will not be degraded. The committee's bill eliminates this requirement and, consequently, the committee's bill would allow weather service bureaucrats to close offices all over the country. Just this past weekend, my district there in Alabama suffered again from tornadoes, tornado warnings.”