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Thank you all for being here today. After many long hours of debate yesterday, I appreciate your timeliness and readiness coming into today's meeting.

The Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee has jurisdiction over a diverse group of agencies and activities including financial regulators, tax collections, the White House, the Federal courts, DC, GSA and the Small Business Administration.

Welcome to the subcommittee markup of the fiscal year 2013 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies bill. I want to thank our colleagues, especially Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Dicks, for joining us today.

I also want to personally thank Mr. Moran and each of the Members for their active participation and the bipartisan spirit that continues to be a hallmark of our subcommittee's deliberations.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to offer the THUD bill for Full Committee consideration today. I hope we can be brief. I'd like to thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Dicks for your leadership in getting this bill to Full Committee, and, we hope, to the floor in the near future. I think we stand a good chance of being successful in completing House consideration.

This bill does the important work of supporting a vibrant and safe infrastructure, while making the difficult but responsible cuts needed to get our budgets back into balance. This bill continues the thoughtfulness and restraint that have become the hallmark of this Committee over the last several years of budgeting. It prioritizes our nation's most critical transportation programs accordingly, creating an environment that fosters job creation and funds important repairs and improvements, and ensuring access to affordable housing options.

Thank you, Chairman Rogers for yielding.

We have before us today the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill and report for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies as passed by the Subcommittee on June 6th.