Edolphus Towns: “Let me thank you, Mr. Lynch, for the hard work that you have done on this bill. And let me begin by saying to the other…”

“Let me thank you, Mr. Lynch, for the hard work that you have done on this bill. And let me begin by saying to the other side, I hope we're talking about the same legislation here, because in the committee, the only--as I remember very vividly--the only amendment that was offered was accepted. We accepted the amendment. And of course, the committee voice voted the legislation out. Now I hear about this motion to recommit. And I understand working together. I do believe in that, and I think you accomplish a whole lot more when you do that. But the point is, we have not even seen the motion to recommit. So, therefore, you're talking about working together and sharing information but, at the same time, you're withholding information. That, to me, I find very, very strange. This is a committee that would welcome ideas and suggestions. But the point is that we can't go through a whole process and then, at the end of the process, you complain about the fact that I did not have an opportunity. I want you to know that we recognize the importance of amendments, and if they strengthened the legislation we would have accepted it. So I want to thank all the folks that worked on this. And it seems hard, I understand now, to imagine with the sweltering summer heat that has arrived, but during February's record-breaking snowstorm, the Federal Government in the D.C. area shut down for nearly an entire work week. We now have almost forgotten that.”