Bob Wise: “I oppose a one-third cut in the EDA. First of all, you can cut it back so that it is not effective at all, and that is…”

“I oppose a one-third cut in the EDA. First of all, you can cut it back so that it is not effective at all, and that is what this amendment would do. This bill is also less than what the President requested. The EDA has taken already a 13-percent reduction in force in its headquarters staff, for an effective total of a 20-percent reduction already in its employees. But I would ask, would you deny communities across the country the kind of successful projects, for instance, such as the Putnam County feasibility study to look at the feasibility of building a multimillion-dollar airport or the Randolph County Wood Technology Institute, already listed by one company as a major reason for moving to Randolph County? Or the water system extension in Hardy County that permitted hundreds of new jobs in poultry processing to be created? Or the grant to the Martinsburg Eastern Regional Airport that will create hundreds of jobs in a jet production facility? Would you deny those to future communities that are looking to create jobs? I think not. That is why this cut of this magnitude should not be passed.”