Rick Lazio: “I greatly respect and appreciate and am gratified for the level of comity that you have not just with the chairman of…”

“I greatly respect and appreciate and am gratified for the level of comity that you have not just with the chairman of the subcommittee but also with all of us. If this were a matter of something personal in nature, I would be very glad to give it up in order to further that comity. But there is something deep inside, when we talk about the disabled, people who are mentally disabled, people that are physically challenged, people that are quadriplegic, people that were formerly in institutions that we now have the ability to give permanent housing solutions for, that we must meet. If we do nothing else, we ought to be doing this. If I thought it was politically expedient, that we can take from some of the other accounts, and we just saw the last amendment go down, I would not have selected from this housing account. But of the choices that I thought were politically feasible in order for us to honor what I consider my personal obligation as a public official to the very people that I come to this body to serve, the people who do not have the ability to speak for themselves, the elderly, the people who struggle, the disabled, I feel it is my duty to try and press for this so that we meet our obligation. Now, I am not asking for more money, I would say to my distinguished colleagues.…”