Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. Fattah. I join with him in opposing this amendment. Legal Services is funded at $375 million this year. This budget cuts it $75 million to $300 million. That is a large cut. That is over 20 percent. It has been cut and cut and cut over the years. Nationally, 50 percent of all eligible potential clients are turned away from Legal Services because of a lack of funding. In my district in Memphis, they have lost $300,000, and the staff has been reduced from 50 to 38. Mr. Chairman, when we travel overseas, one of the things that almost every individual you meet up with tells us about America is, We envy your justice system. They envy our justice system because people have access to the courts to settle our differences. But if you are poor and/or uneducated and you don't have a lawyer, you don't have access, really, to the legal system; the other side will. If you are a domestic violence victim and you need an attorney and you don't have one, you are subject to further domestic violence. If you are a tenant in an apartment building and you are being run out, the apartment people are going to have attorneys and you won't, and you will be on the street. So we are talking about victims, domestic victims. We are talking about people being homeless. We are talking about individuals, American citizens, who won't have access to the courts, the envy of people around the world when they look at America, and we will be taking it away from them.…”