John Culberson: “First of all, I want to thank everyone here in the House for their kind words and their prayers and their support this…”

“First of all, I want to thank everyone here in the House for their kind words and their prayers and their support this morning for the Hurricane Harvey relief bill. I want to thank you in particular, Chairman Frelinghuysen, for your hard work, along with the Speaker, to get that legislation passed through the House in record time to get relief to the people of Texas and Lousiana, and know that we are praying for the people of Puerto Rico and Florida who are facing this terrible hurricane right now. Today, I am pleased to present the fiscal year 2018 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. I want to particularly thank my ranking member, Jose Serrano, who has been a good partner to work with and for his support when it comes to science, and NASA has deeply appreciated it. His input has improved the bill significantly. I am also very grateful to Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey for their help in writing this bill, and the superb staff work on both sides of the aisle in putting it together. {time} 1700 This Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies bill provides $54 billion in discretionary funding this year, which is $2.6 billion below fiscal year 2017. We have done our best to be good stewards of our constituents' hard- earned and very precious tax dollars. We fund critical programs in this bill while cutting or freezing lower priority programs.…”