Let me just say it's good to see the freshman class president from the other side at the Speaker's podium this evening. Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down critical parts of the Voting Rights Act, and I, like my…

Yet we are talking about cutting these benefits even further while we continue subsidies to big industries that are well- off. Those priorities are backwards. For the mother in my district who is expecting another child and who counts on…

First let me commend the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) and his leadership for 18 years on fighting for the needs of SNAP assistance for our most vulnerable citizens. I rise and stand with Mr. McGovern against this procedural…

I am really pleased that after nearly 6 months as a member of this committee, as a freshman, that we're finally starting to talk about the government reform aspects of this committee's charge.

Good evening. Let me first thank my good friend, the gentleman from the Empire State, my coanchor, Mr. Jeffries. It has been a pleasure now, for the first six months of our term in this 113th Congress, to work with you to bring these…

I hope that we can be as inclusive as possible with your proposed legislation and take some of these other provisions into account.

This is actually a very important hearing, and I want to commend you, Mr. Chairman, and the ranking member.

Because when you follow the money, you see where there can be efficiencies identified and implemented.

Unless Congress changes the law, that's the standard, and that's what the agency should be held to.

I support economic growth and smart energy development, but my experience from Nevada is that we must work with local communities when changing Federal policy.

I don't believe that Anaheim or places like Las Vegas should be singled out... that somehow these places should be targeted.

Royalties collected from offshore drilling in Federal waters should be returned to the rightful resource owner, the Federal taxpayer.

I hope under your leadership we can take a step back, look at the whole of the agency, look where we need to strategically reform.

It's not the destination that's the problem, it's the internal failure to spend appropriately.

We can't drill our way to cheap gas prices and energy independence.

So therefore it's out of compliance with Federal law.

The fact that the IRS is now demonstrating a pattern of, in your own words, management failures to meet the very standards that they hold the public, businesses, and nonprofits to is very troubling and, frankly, unacceptable.

This bipartisan amendment that I am offering along with Congressman Heck would help address some of our concerns about the calculations in the Urban Area Security Initiative funding formula. UASI provides critical funding to cities that…

I would note that while people may not agree, RFS is the law and it was a law that many Republicans and former President George Bush implemented.

But specifically and monetarily what have you done, what have your companies done?

Thank you, Congresswoman. Let me just engage you for a moment because you hit on a number of points. I want, again, to make sure that we are providing a voice to these very important issues. And to follow the conversation, if you're tuning…

Tonight the Congressional Black Caucus comes before this body and the American people for the next hour to talk about important issues facing our country. Tonight, we will discuss the problem of poverty in America and what we can do to…

And so a lot of times when these programs get talked about, the various acronyms, billions of dollars here and billions of dollars there--waste, fraud, and abuse I know gets brought up oftentimes as kind of the red herring in the room in a…

Thank you for your leadership and for fighting the fight on this very important issue of poverty in America. Over the last week, we had our work period. And I had the opportunity to be in my district, Mr. Speaker. One of the things we did…

Well, I know the challenge is something that you have called upon for people to accept. This is a reality for 16 million children, 46 million Americans who are living at this level now. The average meal is $1.48 per meal.