Graves meets constituents in new Gainesville office

GAINESVILLE - Ninth District Congressman Tom Graves Tuesday hosted an open house at his new Gainesville office on the third floor of the office building at 311 Green Street. Constituents were waiting at the door when he arrived.

Graves said the number one issue on their minds was cutting government spending, which is what he and his Republican colleagues tried to do before the budget went to the Senate.

"The Senate, under different leadership, wants to preserve their big spending programs, but in the House we sent over more than $100 billion in cuts. We hoped they would agree with the American people (that) it's time to cut spending and cut Washington and get the fiscal house in order."

The Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce brought its oversized pair of scissors for the symbolic ribbon cutting at the new office, and Graves quipped that he would like to take that pair of scissors back to Washington with him.

He said moving to the new Green Street location was a cost cutting measure that would make his office more accessible.

"It meets our needs very well with the amount of staff we have and it actually saved about half as much as we were spending on the other office," Graves said.

Graves has already opened an office in the western side of the district in Dalton.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/2/236403