Political Quotes

“while I certainly understand the focus and intent of this amendment, I rise in opposition and worry that this amendment will create more bureaucracy and administrative costs rather than focus on getting dollars out to the participants in the programs. The focus of the GIVE Act is on streamlining our national service programs to make them more effective, efficient, and accountable. To do that, we have refocused a number of programs and added priorities to others to ensure that national service funds are being spent on initiatives that meet the most pressing needs. We have accomplished that by working within the existing program structures rather than piling new programs on top of existing programs with similar purposes. I share the gentleman's concerns in the area of energy conservation. I believe a better approach to this issue would have been to work within existing structures. In fact, this bill already does that by addressing energy usage and conservation in a number of areas. Learn and Service, a new Summer of Service program, includes a focus on energy conservation. And in the innovative program section of that program, energy conservation is specifically included as a type of program eligible for funding. Under the National Civilian Community Corps, energy conservation was specifically added as a new purpose for that program.”