Political Quotes

“I rise in opposition to an amendment offered by Senator Grams of Minnesota which would drastically reduce funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission. At a time when we are correctly terminating or scaling back outdated Federal programs, I believe the Appalachian Regional Commission is the type of Federal initiative we should be encouraging. It is important to recognize that the ARC uses its limited Federal dollars to leverage additional State and local funding. This successful partnership enables communities in Virginia to have tailored programs which help them respond to a variety of grass-roots needs. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, 21 counties rely heavily on the assistance they receive from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Income levels for this region of Virginia further indicate that on average my constituents who reside in this region have incomes which are $6,000 below the average per capita income for the rest of the Nation. In 1960, when the ARC was created, the poverty rate in Virginia's Appalachian region was 24.4 percent. Since that time the ARC has helped slash the region's poverty rate in half. However, we are still a long way from achieving the U.S. average poverty level of 13.1 and also the regional poverty level of other ARC-member States of 15.2 percent.”