Political Quotes

“I would say this is not about Alaska. Alaska is a tremendous State that I have personally visited. I have not had an opportunity to live there, as my colleague has, obviously. But this is not about Alaska; this is about duplication in government efficiency and how we actually deliver services to these agencies. In 2004, President Bush's Office of Management and Budget wrote that the Commission's activities were duplicative of other Federal programs that address the same needs and provide the same types of assistance. In 2009, President Obama's OMB referred to the Denali Commission as duplicative, redundant, unnecessary, and stated there was no evidence that the Denali Commission's job training programs improve employment outcomes for participants. The GAO found the Denali Commission's activities to be duplicative of other Federal programs. The Congressional Budget Office examined the Denali Commission and they said that they failed to find any evidence that they have achieved success in these areas in large part due to the overlap of the Commission's activities in other Federal programs. And in October of 2013, the Office of Inspector General said that the Denali Commission was a middleman, that it was an experiment that had run its course and argued that these funds could be appropriated and be put to better use. Put the funds towards Alaska. Put them actually in direct grants rather than a program that is a middleman around it.…”