On the recordFebruary 18, 2011
I just want to begin with a map of Arizona, showing all of the colored areas of Arizona that are actually Federal property, over half of the State. My amendment deals with PILT and Federal payments to places like Arizona, which is on a continuing welfare system of government spending and has been for many, many decades. Let me now show you the State of Ohio, where there are proposals that the Community Development Block Grant funds in the base bill are being cut. This is Ohio. We don't have much Federal property. We hardly have anything at all related to federal government. Ohioans have to make it in the free market. And yet what's happening in the bill is that more money is going to pay out for PILT than for places like I represent in the Midwest, where unemployment is so high. The bill actually cuts Community Development Block Grant dollars for cities and towns across this country to the tune of $2.95 billion. And yet, the base bill continues these PILT payments, which are really welfare payments to the West. If this Congress is serious about cutting spending, we need to address some of the fundamental challenges contained in what I call megamarks. These aren't earmarks; these are big megamarks that benefit certain regions of the country at the expense of others. Just to give you a sense of this, these subsidies have existed for generations. It's time that the West stood on its own two feet.
