Political Quotes

“First of all, I want to thank my colleague from New Hampshire, Charlie Bass, who has really worked hard on this issue to bring about greater accountability and oversight of how American taxpayer dollars are being allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, especially to make sure that when the money comes back that it's really clear with these agencies that it goes back to pay down the deficit and doesn't end up in some sort of slush fund, and my colleague Mr. Bass has played a real leadership role in both crafting this legislation and making sure it comes to the House at this time. Mr. Speaker, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated approximately $7 billion in taxpayer money to two broadband-related grant and loan programs. One was administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the other by the Rural Utility Service. The wisdom of creating these programs and whether the money should have been better targeted to unserved households has been the subject of ongoing debate. There is, however, general consensus on the importance of oversight, as evidenced by the bill, H.R. 1343, unanimously passed out of subcommittee and the full Energy and Commerce Committee by voice vote. I, for one, want to make sure these programs do not produce some sort of Solyndra problem.…”