Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this amendment reduces the funding to the Delta Regional Commission by $6.1 million, back to the FY19 level. In FY17, the Obama administration sought to cut funding for the Delta Regional Commission by $3 million. The FY18, FY19, FY20, and FY21 budgets all sought to eliminate funding for the Delta Regional Commission, identifying it as duplicative of other Federal economic development programs. Where have we heard that before? The FY21 budget pointed out that the Delta Regional Commission, like others, is set aside for special geographic designations rather than applied across the country, based on objective criteria indicating local areas' levels of distress. Well, that is what States are for. That is not the Federal Government. If you don't live there, this isn't going to help you at all, but you are going to pay for it. We are $35 trillion in debt, Mr. Chair. We simply can't continue to allow for the rapid growth of parochial commissions. They probably do wonderful things for the people that are there, probably, but they duplicate other Federal programs, and they continue undeterred. Federal programs that are likely doing the work that States and local governments should be doing. We wonder how did we get to $35 trillion in debt? Well, I don't know. Everybody got a commission, a handout, money. At a minimum, we should return the funding of this program to prepandemic FY19 levels.…”