Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise to offer my amendment to reduce funding for the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, the SCRC, to prepandemic, fiscal year 2019 levels. Yet again, this commission serves as a duplicative slush fund for parochial interests, this time for projects in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. I have many friends in those locations. From FY 2010 to FY 2020, the SCRC received $250,000 annually, all without having an appointed Federal co-chair. There was nobody in charge. There was nobody running the thing, but they still got $250,000. I know in the face of trillions, $250,000 isn't much. Where I come from, my bosses would love to have $250,000 every single year and not have to account for it because nobody is in charge. After a co-chair was appointed in December 2021--again, conveniently, with close ties to political leadership--the number is now a whopping $20 million in this bill. From $250,000 with nobody in charge to somebody politically connected to $20 million. There is absolutely no reason for that dramatic increase in funding-- well, there is one, but you are probably not going to like it-- especially when these projects fund both projects with no national nexus, like electric vehicle charging stations. We have to have a regional commission to do that? We just had an amendment where you are telling me the Department of Energy has got to pay for that, but now the regional commission pays for that also.…”