Rob Andrews: “because of this bipartisan agreement, the House is about to vote this morning for the first time in its history for $100…”

“because of this bipartisan agreement, the House is about to vote this morning for the first time in its history for $100 million in direct aid to the fire service. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell) has really spearheaded this whole effort and deserves enormous praise, as well as the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) for bringing forth the amendment, as well as the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for championing it. And let me say to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Meek) that she deserves praise for bringing to our attention a very serious item that was corrected. I do believe that communities should be able to use Community Development Block Grant money to help low-income areas for fire and public safety, but the proper venue to make that decision is through the authorizing process and in the appropriate committees. Because of the gentlewoman's leadership, we are going to do this. I support this.”