Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding. I would like to thank Congressman Welch from Vermont for his leadership on this bill as well. It is no secret that Congressman Welch is one of the great champions in the House on the issue of energy efficiency, and it has been my pleasure to work with him on this. I would also like to thank Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Waxman for their support in guiding this bill through committee. This legislation is a great example of what we can do when we work together in a bipartisan fashion. I would like to thank the majority and minority staffers. It is to their credit that they worked to craft an amended version of this bill that everybody could agree on. It was great to see this bill pass unanimously out of the committee. K-12 school districts spend billions on their energy bills every year, approximately $6 billion a year, according to Energy Star, second only to personnel costs, exceeding the costs of textbooks and exceeding the costs of supplies. Energy expenses are one of the few costs that can be reduced while, at the same time, improving classroom instruction. In fact, high- performance schools can lower a school district's operating costs by up to 30 percent. There are numerous Federal initiatives already available to schools to help them become more energy efficient.…”