Bill Lee: “I thank our whip for that very important statement. A couple of things I would like to just comment on, Mr. Hoyer, that…”

“I thank our whip for that very important statement. A couple of things I would like to just comment on, Mr. Hoyer, that you mentioned. In terms of ``first, do no harm,'' a couple of years ago--and this was with bipartisan support--in all of our appropriations bills, we put in language that said that we will do nothing in this legislation that would increase poverty. We did that on a bipartisan basis. Also, when Speaker Ryan was the chair of the Budget Committee, we talked about poverty and tried to determine a way to put into legislation--it was our job to develop a national strategy to eliminate poverty. So what you are raising tonight I think is very important in terms of a window of opportunity for us to work in a bipartisan way to begin to really do this in terms of reducing and eliminating poverty for the 46 million people who deserve to live the American Dream. I think that this task force and yourself, really, with Speaker Ryan should be able to do this on behalf of the American people. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.”