Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, to kind of pick up where my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia, left off, I also am on the Education and the Workforce Committee, and this is my third year in Congress, and hopefully every year you learn a bit about how programs work and where money ought to be spent. At the end of the day, it is a judgment call. The Committee on Appropriations has made some choices that are their version of how it ought to be. Now we have a chance, as Members, to come in and suggest how these choices might change, and does it make sense to rearrange the money and spend money here and take money from there. Mr. Chairman, the question of money and people is always an intriguing question. If I thought just by increasing appropriations bills we could prevent all workplace deaths, I would do so. If I thought just spending more money would take every family and every parent that has a disabled child and get the most out of that child, I would gladly spend the money. Sometimes it is not about how much you spend but the way you conduct the program, who is controlling the money, who has say-so of how it is spent; that is probably just as important as the amounts. The OSHA laws in this country, in my opinion, have in the past focused more on the bureaucracy and more on the paperwork side of the House, rather than on whether or not it is really making the workplace safe.”