Department on Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LEE. I want to thank the gentleman from Washington for yielding and also for his leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this continuing resolution.

Budgets are moral documents that reflect who we are as a Nation. They're not just about dollars and cents.

These cuts won't create jobs, foster economic opportunity, or provide pathways out of poverty. Instead, this bill eliminates billions in investments in our workforce, our transportation infrastructure, our small businesses and, most importantly, in our people. It's a bold assault on millions of people who rely on our safety net.

These budget cuts and warped priorities should be a moral outrage to every Member of this body. That's why 36,000 people and approximately 30 Members of Congress have joined the faith community in a 24-hour fast to highlight the enormous impact, the devastating impact of these budget cuts.

This bill is nothing more than a tea party checklist targeting programs that help the most vulnerable: $504 million from the WIC Program, $300 million from COPS, $125 million from Dislocated Worker Assistance programs, $49 million for mentoring children of inmates, $17 million for Title X family planning programs, and $25 million for Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers.

Instead of targeting low-income and middle-income individuals and the residents of the District of Columbia particularly, and especially low-income women and women of color, we should be serious about getting our bloated military budget together and reduced and end these three wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. We could save billions, mind you, billions of dollars by ending these wars.

Madam Speaker, we should reject these cuts which hurt our most vulnerable populations and the residents of the District of Columbia. It's shameful. It's a moral disgrace. And I urge a ``no'' vote on it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source