Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to Representative Noem's amendment. I think that there is a worthy objective of providing freshwater to all parts of our country. We talked about that earlier today. The problem is her amendment takes funds from other accounts to try to move some of those dollars to rural America. Frankly, our fundamental problem is that this bill is $2.8 billion under what was being expended in this fiscal year of 2013, and it's $4 billion under the administration request. So what she's essentially doing is taking money from something else in order to move it to rural areas of the country. I represent some of those. They're very worthy. Some of them do receive funds through the Department of Agriculture. Some smaller communities also have associations with the Environmental Protection Agency. But to cut funds, to take money from the Renewable Energy account--$15 million from there--and from other water-related accounts and to cut departmental administration really is sort of picking off very scarce bones. And I have to oppose the amendment on that basis. The Renewable Energy accounts, which are America's future--they're a major part of our downpayment on the future--have been cut 60 percent. You are withdrawing additional funds from those accounts to try to move toward needed rural water needs. But, frankly, these accounts have been severely cut, and the gentlelady's amendment harms them more. We simply can't cut more from those accounts.…”