Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the Fiscal Year 2011 Transportation-HUD Appropriations Act. As we all know, this is a very tight budget year, but Chairman Olver and the other Members of the Committee are to be commended for providing increased funding for critical transportation and housing programs. Many of my colleagues joined me in requesting increases for Section 8 and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program--also known as HOPWA. I am pleased that this bill increases funding for Section 8 programs by approximately $2 billion. The bill includes $9.4 billion for project based rental assistance, and $19.4 billion for tenant-based rental assistance, which should be enough to renew all existing vouchers covering more than 2 million families. The bill also has $350 million for HOPWA, which is $15 million more than last year and $10 million over the President's request. I thank the Chairman for his efforts to secure these badly needed resources. Many Members also joined me in requesting an increase for federal transit programs so that we can maintain our public transportation systems in a state of good repair and accommodate increased ridership. I would like to thank the Chairman for including $11.3 billion for federal transit programs, which is an increase of over $500 million from last year. The bill includes increased funding for transit capital programs as well as $250 million for operating assistance.…”