Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
06/12/2007
Pelosi: Appropriations Bills Keep Our Promise to the American People
Washington,
D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi was joined by other House Democratic Leaders and
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey at a news conference this afternoon
to discuss Democratic plans to reverse years of Republican cuts and invest in
America’s priorities as the House begins considering appropriations bills.
Below are her opening remarks:
“I thank my colleagues for their
presentations and their leadership in bringing us to this day. It is with great
pride that I stand with them because it is a day that we are keeping our
promises to the American people. Earlier in the spring, we passed a budget that
was a reflection of
“Today, we are taking it down a
path to the specifics in the Appropriations bill. We always talk about, first
and foremost, how we protect the American people. In the Homeland Security
bill, when we’re talking about first responders, port security, the whole
agenda, we have a very strong bill to protect the American people. And as we do
that, we honor our promises to our men and women in uniform in the Military
Quality of Life bill, to give them the biggest increase in veterans’ help since
the inception of the Veteran’s Administration 77 years ago. It’s been said over
and over again, but it bears repetition, this really is a breakthrough and the
veterans appreciate it.
“Then we go to how we grow our
economy and we will have more legislation, not all of it this week on this
subject, but certainly the work that is being invested into research on health
care is part of our innovation agenda – to be number one, to keep
“How we care for our families --
the health and education of our children are very well served by this
legislation that the Appropriations Committee has written and taken the lead
on.
“And how we preserve our planet
--Mr. Hoyer and others have referenced the provisions for energy independence
and stopping global warming in the legislation that will come before the
Congress this week.
“How we protect our country, how
we grow our economy, how we strengthen our families and care for our children,
how we preserve our planet -- these are the four points that cover all of what
we do. And we promised that we would do all of these things in a way that was
fiscally sound, and we do, in a way that is open and transparent, and we do, in
a way that strives for bipartisanship and stability, and we
do.
“I want to salute our
distinguished chairman, Mr. Obey, who was my chairman when I was on the
Appropriations Committee in those days as he indicated, we didn’t have any
earmarks. And the ones that we have today will be well known to the American
people. And no one will be taken by surprise with them.”