Political Quotes

“Let me thank our ranking member, first of all, for yielding, but secondly, for her unwavering leadership on this subcommittee, but also on each and every issue that we are addressing in this bill and for her leadership just in general, in terms of making sure that people who have been marginalized and who really have been victimized by this terrible recession really have opportunities into the middle class. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Kaptur. Let me thank the Chair for including language to recognize the importance of workplace diversity in the Department of Energy's National Laboratories and encouraging the Department to develop and broaden partnerships with minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Mr. Chairman, however, I am concerned that not only does this bill maintain harmful sequester levels for funding, it also continues the pattern of inserting unnecessary policy riders into spending bills, including allowing guns to be carried on all Corps of Engineers lands. These riders are harmful and further complicate the already difficult appropriations process. Mr. Chairman, instead of trying to roll back vital environmental protections, we need to be proactive about preserving our environment for the next generation. We need to make more investments in clean energy like solar, wind, and geothermal. We need to do this to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels that release harmful, toxic methane and carbon.…”