Political Quotes

“I rise to speak for the city where free Americans reside, not the Federal city. The Federal city belongs to everyone. As free American citizens, Wards 1 through 8 belong to those of us who live in the District of Columbia. Each year lots of time has been spent debating the minutia of details of one city far afield from urgent national business and outside the competence of national legislators. The result, without exception, has been multiple vetoes that ultimately result in turning around the very controversial amendments voted into this bill or substantially changing them. When will we learn? Hopefully, this year. There is not enough time left in this session to play games with the D.C. appropriation. The Mayor, the D.C. council and I have been clear about our two major objections to this bill. One: not merely cuts, but redirection of the remaining funds from indispensable priorities that the Mayor and the council specifically requested Federal funds to cover, including a subway station that is essential to the District's number one economic priority and to a new Federal ATF facility on New York Avenue; and two: reinserting into the bill not only social riders, to which we have always objected, but gratuitously a far larger number of riders that are so out of date, or irrelevant that OMB and the District believed that no Member would want the bill encumbered with them.”