Cole Remarks During Floor Consideration of H.R. 4366, The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Thank you very much Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the chairwoman for yielding. I want to begin with some much deserved thank yous I want to thank the speaker this house, this deal would not have come together without his leadership and support. I particularly want to thank my Chairwoman Kay Granger and Ranking Member DeLauro for their work and their leadership and putting a package together they can get across this floor in a bipartisan manner. And I'd be remissed not to thank my negotiating part counterparts, Ranking Member Quigley and Senator Schatz and Ranking Member Hyde Smith on the Senate side of the rotunda. They were just terrific to work with in every way. And finally, and always, we have outstanding staff. We all know what that and this bill wouldn't be here without their hard work.

Obviously, I want to focus my remarks, Mr. Speaker very quickly on the portion of the bills that I had the most to do with and that's the Transportation Housing and Urban Development portion. There are four areas in that bill, I'm especially proud to first members of both parties and both sides of the aisle. Actually, both sides of the rotunda worked really hard on safety, first safety for people that are in flying safety, people that are traveling by rail safety for men and women on the highways and we met the requirement there and fully funded all those agencies.

Second, this is probably the most robust funding that the federal aeronautical agency has ever received. We have money in there for 1800 new traffic controllers who are desperately needed. We have additional money for technology and for infrastructure programs and simulators to make sure they get the most up to date training we can possibly provide for them. So that was a real accomplishment. And it marries up very nicely with the FAA reauthorization bill, that I hope we pass later this Congress.

Third, we maintain the safety net for people in public housing, we all know what has happened to cost of rents and housing. And frankly, we didn't want to put anybody out of their home and we avoided doing that. Finally, and particularly important to me personally, we have historic gains for Indian housing programs and Indian Road programs in this bill. Again, none of that could have happened without the people I thanked earlier, the speaker, particularly the Chairwoman and the Ranking Member of the subcommittee and my negotiating partners. So I urge passage of this legislation, Mr. Speaker. I'm very proud to be associated and very proud that we'll come to and move across this floor as it should in a bipartisan fashion. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back.