Political Quotes

“This would not be an appropriation bill if we didn't have this amendment before us. Every year, this amendment has been offered, and the gentlewoman from Tennessee and I have debated this many times in the past. While I commend my colleague for her consistent work to protect the taxpayers' dollars, this is not the approach that I would endorse nor can I support. The bill in its current form balances many of the needs. The bill prioritizes funding for national security and critical infrastructure, yet the gentlewoman's amendment proposes an across-the-board cut on every one of these programs, including increases in funding that are sorely needed to modernize our nuclear weapons stockpile and to protect our Nation's electrical grid from emerging cyber threats. Across-the-board cuts make no distinction between where we need to be spending or investing in our infrastructure, promoting jobs, and meeting our national security needs and where we need to limit spending to meet our deficit reduction goals. That is what we actually do when we write a bill in the Appropriations Committee and have the hearings and so forth. The main reason this bill is $1.5 billion above last year and the reason that the chairman gave this allocation to the Energy and Water Subcommittee is because there was a need in rebuilding our nuclear security infrastructure. That is where the majority of that money went.…”