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I thank the Chairwoman for yielding, and I congratulate her, Ranking Member Serrano, and the entire Subcommittee and its staff on producing a strong Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013.
Unquestionably, the fiscal situation confronting our nation is of the utmost importance to our national and economic security. The unsustainable trajectory of federal spending in recent years has left us in a precarious situation. With our debt-to-GDP ratio at a startling 100%, it is becoming even more abundantly clear that we cannot spend our way out of continuing economic woes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.
We have before us today the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, the FDA and Related Agencies, which is funded at the discretionary 302(b) allocation of $19.405 billion. This is a 1.85 percent decrease compared to the fiscal year 2012 enacted level. I would like to thank Chairman Kingston, Ranking Member Farr and staff on both sides for their bipartisan efforts to prepare for this markup today, as well as my good friend from Washington, Mr. Dicks, for his role in getting this bill to the subcommittee. I look forward to continuing the regular order under which we have moved our appropriations bills this year.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5855, the Fiscal Year 2013 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
After successfully thwarting several attempts at terrorist attacks in our skies, and eliminating the world's most heinous terrorist Osama bin Laden, we can agree our country is safer today than it was ten years ago.
But we face constant reminders that the war on terror is far from over. Our freedom isn't free, and we cannot skimp on our national security if we want to stay vigilant and – most importantly – safe.
