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Mr. CHAFFETZ. I first want to applaud and thank the committee for their work. They've reached the laudable goal of reducing the overall expenditures by $4 billion. And that is much appreciated and noted. I just happen to think we can do just a little bit better.

I'm looking at the committee report regarding the committee's recommendation on the Community Development Fund, specifically the Community Development Block Grants. And I read:

``This is $396 million above both fiscal year 2012 and the budget request.''

So you have the President making a budget request, and you have last year's expenditures. What this amendment does is reduces by $396 million to get it back to where we were. Again, I think the President is even also on the same page.

Now, Madam Chair, we have to recognize what a dire financial strait we're in in this country. We have to understand that we have a multitrillion-dollar challenge. We talk about a trillion with a capital T and it's hard to get your arms around it. But if you were to spend a million dollars a day everyday, it would take you almost 3,000 years to get to $1 trillion.

So when we're racking up a trillion-plus-dollar deficit each year, when our national debt at the end of this year will approach $16 trillion, when we're spending more than $600 million a day in interest on our national debt, we're going to have to cut some spending.

To actually bring back and reduce this to the proper level, I think would be more appropriate. I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment. It returns the funding to the fiscal year 2012 level. Again, as the committee report says, this is $396 million above both fiscal year 2012 and the budget request. I think this is reasonable. I hope the committee would find a place where we can join on this, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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