Anthony Weiner: “The number that we chose to increase by would provide what APHIS says is the necessary full funding to eradicate this…”

“The number that we chose to increase by would provide what APHIS says is the necessary full funding to eradicate this pest, which is something that has ravaged New York City, ravaged Queens and Brooklyn, also has been spotted most troubling in Illinois and in New Jersey. We would be dramatically walking away from our commitment to wiping out this pest if we were to reduce to the chairman's mark. We have to decide what we want to do. Do we want to take this cause that we have decided is necessary to be eradicated, we funded tens of millions of the dollars to eradicate it by a date certain? If we were to adopt the number in the chairman's mark, we would essentially be saying a lot of that money would be wasted because we would allow that pest to further infect trees not only in New York and New Jersey and Connecticut but apparently all throughout the Midwest. I ask for a favorable consideration.”