National Law Enforcement Museum Commemorative Coin Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I rise to support this bill, and particularly, I want to talk about the transportation and housing portion of it. Chairman Price and I worked with our Senate colleagues to craft a fair agreement to meet our Nation's transportation and housing needs.
The T-HUD discretionary total is $74.3 billion, which is $1.5 billion below the House-passed level.
I would note that there are a lot of pressures in this bill. We required $2 billion above last year just to meet housing inflation and another $2 billion just to make up for lost receipts, so there is a $4 billion hole to start with.
Some tough choices had to be made. Let me talk about specifics: $2.4 billion for highway grants, which provides funding directly to our State DOTs, $1 billion for BUILD grants to help transform communities, and $225 million for port infrastructure. This bill also emphasizes safety, and that is something we should be proud of.
For HUD, we provide $3.4 billion for Community Development Block Grants, a huge priority for Members, both Democrats and Republicans.
The bill meets our commitment to provide housing assistance to our most vulnerable, including the elderly, the disabled, and our veterans.
I am proudly particularly proud and pleased that the bill provides $2.8 billion for homeless assistance grants. I have seen the results of this program firsthand. In Miami-Dade County, we, in essence, effectively eliminated homelessness among veterans in our county.
As a final point on the T-HUD bill, I would note that this agreement drops all the controversial riders in the bill. Once again, Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Granger led us through difficult negotiations by working day and night and never giving up, and we are grateful for their leadership.
Finally, I thank Chairman Price for his friendship and his partnership. He has been a joy and a delight to work with, as well as our Senate counterparts, Senator Collins and Senator Reed.
I am proud of this bill. I think it is a great bill for transportation and infrastructure, and also for our housing needs, and I urge a ``yes'' vote.
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