Bob Wise: “Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the Hefley amendment. I want to address some of the concerns that the…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the Hefley amendment. I want to address some of the concerns that the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. Hefley] has brought up. I want to first visit history a little bit. The gentleman states that the program has not been reauthorized for about a dozen years and that that should be some kind of evidence that it is obsolete. The gentleman needs to remember that the reason it has not been reauthorized is because both Presidents Reagan and Bush said they would veto the reauthorization should it come to their desk, but significantly, particularly in this House of Representatives, a majority of Members on both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, kept the EDA alive through the appropriations process. Why? Because a majority of this House and a majority, obviously, of the Senate recognized the significance and the importance of the Economic Development Administration. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman refers to a loan default problem and, indeed, he is correct. There was one in the late 1970's. That is why a majority of this House and a majority of the other body stopped funding the loan program, and so it has been moribund all these many years. Indeed, in the legislation before us today there is no reauthorization of the loan program.”