Political Quotes

“of course the CR before us is not supposed to have items that raise the cost of government, nor agreement on what the cost should be. There is a sleeper item in this CR that Members need to know about because it certainly raises the cost of government a great deal and a great deal more than was necessary. We are treated in this CR to a lease. That is I must say an unprecedented circumvention of the committee process. Perhaps that could be justified under some circumstances. There are three hugely negative consequences for doing so today. We have raised the price of the interim headquarters for the Homeland Security Department. We have disrespected the committee which was in a position to help mitigate the price and the length of the lease, and we have undermined the economy of the Nation's capital. Let me say a word about each of those. First, raise the price. What we have here is something that gives every appearance of a sweetheart lease. It was supposed to be 5 years, it is 10 years, which is more than is necessary because this is an interim headquarters. This is not the headquarters. It cannot be cancelled. It is for $250 million, a quarter of a billion dollars for a 10-year lease. After 10 years, we could have bought a building. Why would we lease a building for 10 years at a time when we are cutting appropriations to smithereens.…”