Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today in support of H.R. 3055, which includes the fiscal year 2020 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, or the T-HUD, Appropriations bill. I have worked closely with Chairman Collins, and I want to salute her for her excellent work and her leadership. This is a bipartisan bill, which includes key investments in transportation and housing infrastructure. It has not been an easy job, but Senator Collins' leadership and her thoughtful approach and our collaboration, I think, have helped us present a bill to the U.S. Senate which is more than worthy of support. While the budget agreement provided a 4 percent increase to our allocation, we actually have $1 billion less in spending power compared to 2019 due to declines in offsetting collections and increased costs for renewals in HUD's rental assistance program. Working together and with the input of most Senators, we were able to put together a solid bill that earned unanimous support in the committee. While we were challenged in developing this bipartisan bill, other subcommittees have faced an impossible task as the majority caters to the President's demands for a border wall and places no guardrails to prevent the diversion of defense funds to pay for it. This is the same issue that resulted in the President's 35-day shutdown of the Federal Government between December and January.…”