Political Quotes

“I'm pleased to offer this amendment, of which many members of the Judiciary Committee have worked on behalf of legal services in the past. Many members of the Judiciary Committee have championed legal services over the years, none greater than Bobby Scott, who's been a member of the committee for some time, and the current ranking member, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Jackson Lee and others. Legal services is so important to giving people representation, and this amendment will restore $70 million that's being cut from the Legal Services Corporation. That's 17\1/2\ percent of the money legal services got in the past. Legal services is already woefully underfunded. If you look at the funding they've gotten over the last 30 years and prorate it, they've been behind in funds for a long time, and we've tried to make that up in the past years. Right now they turn away half of all eligible clients who seek assistance. Slashing these funds would make it even worse. And the fact is, in these dire economic times, some of the worst we've seen, although they're getting better, more and more people need legal services. The housing crisis is not over with, and one of the major areas they work with is people who are having problems with foreclosures because of unscrupulous loans that they've been given, and there will be more and more people losing their homes or potentially losing their homes needing legal services.…”