mr. chairman , i yield myself 1 minute . 
in response to my friend from massachusetts , he is right and i agree with him . 
let us get that in the record right now . 
there are those moments in time . 
in fact , he was not here for our colloquy earlier ; so let me just report to him . 
i am sure i am not going to get his vote , but i will report to him anyway . 
we agree with the local control aspects of cdbg . 
there are so many on our side , including myself and so many others , who agree that this is local control , local decision-making , getting this back to communities . 
in the budget that we have , we did not take the president 's assumption with regard to cdbg . 
we do not necessarily foreclose the ability to look at the program and make improvements . 
but we plussed-up the function for cdbg by $ 1.1 billion , and we increased it for that purpose ; and we also did not make any assumption with regard to the president 's new proposal of the strengthening america 's communities block grant or transferring the program from hud , housing and urban development , to the committee on energy and commerce . 
the bottom line is there are many things that we will disagree with on budgets , and like i said , i doubt i am going to get the gentleman 's vote , but i do think we have a bipartisan commitment to this . 
it is one area that i know we will continue to work on . 
and there may be other disagreements , but this is an area that we have worked on together . 
i commend the gentleman for his leadership , and we are providing that leadership as well . 
and we hope the president can come forward with a little better rationale as to why this program , in particular , needed the changes that he proposed in his budget . 
if there are reforms that are needed , then let us reform the program . 
we will work together . 
if there are bad apples spoiling it for the rest of the bunch , then let us get rid of those bad apples . 
let us figure that out . 
but let us not throw the baby out with the bath water . 
i agree with the gentleman . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
