Political Quotes

“I also have reservations about the offset. But let me talk first about EDA. It's critically important--and I'm sorry, I want to apologize to the gentlelady from Ohio--we don't want, in this debate, to substitute insult for insight. I think that what we want to do is focus on the issue at hand. We do need to create jobs. The EDA is a program that I think almost everyone should be able to support because it's local decisionmaking, investing in communities of interest. It's worked in every State of the country to help communities work through difficult economic circumstances when plants close and the like. It's a return of taxpayers' money to their communities for economic development activities. What we need to do as we go forward is think about how we pay for this. This is a $38 million increase that the offset of the census will have political attractiveness. But the truth is that we can't substitute that for our constitutional responsibilities to conduct a census and to do it properly. And we have to prepare for it. So I want to work with the gentleman as the bill goes through the process to try to find additional dollars for EDA, but I hope that at the end of the day we're able to provide more revenues for the census, to do our job as a Congress to fully fund our constitutional responsibilities to have a census and to do it correctly. I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud).…”