Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this is a great bill in many ways. There is a tremendous need. I have family members who are police officers, actually, in small, rural police forces. I have staff members who are former police officers. I understand the situation very well, how much of a difference it makes to so many people. But we have two different programs dealing with bulletproof vests, two different systems of actually distributing bulletproof vests from the Federal Government that in many ways are complementary and in some ways competing. We have two sets of applications with two different sets of personnel to actually approve those applications and two different processes to apply. My goal is that where we find duplication of effort, even if it is a good effort, that we as the Federal Government find ways to be able to streamline that process. Every dollar we spend on bureaucracy here, on a duplicative program, is a dollar less that we actually spend to buy the bulletproof vests and be able to get them out the door. I have had multiple conversations that have been very productive with Senator Leahy and with Senator Graham to talk about this particular issue of how we can combine the application process, how we can combine the administrative process to make sure a good program doesn't lose dollars. We have numerous reports all over the Federal Government on duplication in government. I look forward to the ongoing conversations.…”