Political Quotes

“I want to, again, thank my good friend for, as he always does, raising important issues, and I appreciate his bringing attention to the mental health of children. The amendment offered--and this is an important point I think many Members in this body don't think about--is actually for a newly authorized program that has not received funding in the past, and our committee actually has a smaller allocation than it had last year. I think most of the public doesn't realize it, and it is sort of helpful, frankly, for my friend to advance this amendment. Just because something moves through an authorizing committee doesn't mean any money comes with it. Now, in some cases--my friend worked on the Cures bill--they sent money with portions of that on the opioid initiatives, some additional money at NIH, and, of course, every penny of that has moved in. They found a way to fund it. But we can end up in a situation where you just simply pile on authorizations and send us less money and think we will somehow work it out. Sometimes we do. That is why we have been able to steadily increase funding at NIH, steadily increase funding for programs like TRIO and GEAR UP, and steadily increase money for charter schools. There are some areas we have been able to do that, but we can't do it everyplace. I want to tell my friend that, while I oppose the amendment, I am certainly going to work with him.…”