Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentlewoman's comments. First of all, I did state that fire observation would not be included. Indeed, it is not written in the amendment. It is very specific. So for emergency purposes, if need be, the Department of the Interior still can use, whether it uses its own or DHS' or one of the other myriad agencies that have the vehicles, it still has the ability to do that. But I would also remind the gentlewoman that there are plenty of ambulance services and other emergency services for contract hire out there in our communities that perform emergency services every hour of the day, every day of the year. That fact notwithstanding, the private industry does provide all the other things that the agency is currently embarking on on its own and leaving the private sector out. A friend just called me today and asked me, because I am a helicopter pilot in the Army, if we could put his air-conditioning unit on a roof. I said, ``Absolutely not.'' The Army doesn't do what the civilian world does for good reason. We want the civilians out there doing those things. We don't want to compete as the Federal Government. But in this case, the Department of the Interior is competing directly, and will continue to do if allowed to do so, unless prohibited. They can write contracts, and they can have somebody on call. If there is an emergency situation, they can have a contractor on call to do that, and they should. I reserve the balance of my time. Ms. McCOLLUM.…”