Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Reichert for his leadership on this measure. In this place, we need to make what progress we can under the conditions that exist and make as much of it as possible. I hope that the Senate will respond to this measure. But in order to provide an effective response, we need to have the revenues to provide the resources along with the requirements to meet the needs of our foster youth. A few weeks ago, I met with a number of attorneys in San Antonio who work with foster youth, particularly those who are aging out, as well as a number of community service groups, religious and nonreligious in their orientation. They describe immense problems that our foster youth face. When they age out at age 18, only about 2 percent of those young people in the San Antonio area ever end up in college. {time} 1730 Many of them do get a substantial taxpayer subsidy over their lives. Unfortunately, it is a subsidy in our jails and in our penal system after they are engaged in some harmful conduct. This bill is one step that we can take to address the exploitation of these young people, particularly of young women. There are broader problems out there that need our attention, but I favor moving forward with the progress that we can make today to address this one critical problem. I yield back the balance of my time.”