Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose the gentleman's well- intentioned amendment and again reiterate that our budget is simply insufficient in our subcommittee to meet all of the needs of the country. What the gentleman is proposing is to take an additional $31 million out of the Department's administrative accounts and to shift them to renewable energy systems relating to dams and small dam construction. That is a very worthy objective. However, if you know anything about the Department of Energy, one of the challenges we face in the administrative accounts is getting them to manage their contracts in a way that properly oversees taxpayer dollar expenditures. That Department has had some of the worst cost overruns I have ever seen in my career in Congress, on the nuclear side and on the nonnuclear side. So when the gentleman wants to cut administrative costs, my worry is that we will not have the kind of rigor that the chairman and I have been trying to reinfuse in the Department to better manage the dollars that we allow them to spend. And so I think the gentleman's amendment runs a real risk of creating mismanagement there simply because they don't have the personnel to do the job. And so I think that your end purpose is a very, very worthy one.…”