Political Quotes

“And just on the port, I was very much a part of the argument in that regard, too. And I think again it brought some greater attention to the fact of port security and both what has been done positively and what more we need to do. But to think that after 5 years we have still only appropriated 16 percent of what the Coast Guard has told us they need to enhance port security over the next 10 years. I mean, this is something they are telling us, their expertise, this is what we need to do. And the President actually proposed eliminating $173 million in port security grants. I argued that and presented an amendment to the Budget Committee to restore some of those grants. One of the things that happens, I was going to call it a trick, I suppose that may not be the nicest thing to call it, is if you put all these grant programs together and cut it, you can say I didn't really cut that particular program; I just put these three or four grant programs together and reduced the overall amount and someone else can decide later what we are going to cut. That is still a cut. {time} 2240 We have to understand that there are very serious issues before us. Again, I think we are talking about being fiscally responsible here--we have a priority and what we actually want the dollars to do, the right things that we really need to do. I do want to mention the earlier remarks because there was something I also learned from the visits in my district, and that is, that this is an identity card.…”