Political Quotes

“While there is some satisfaction in seeing that the majority has agreed to prioritize energy, on the other hand I am absolutely dismayed at the partisan nature in which this bill was put together and the extraordinary means taken to remove the bill from the committee's jurisdiction. I am going to spend my time today talking about the process rather than the substance since neither I nor most of the other members of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources were afforded the opportunity to see this legislation until it was introduced. I find it rather disappointing and I guess somewhat humorous that so much fanfare has been linked to this bill's introduction when in fact it is the second time this year alone we have had a similar occurrence. The leadership has taken over the responsibility of the committees of jurisdiction and basically proposed to introduce legislation that does not reflect the input of the minority. This was done first in the Finance Committee on the stimulus bill. I am a member of the Finance Committee, and I participated in the effort where the majority leader and the chairman of the committee basically introduced their version of stimulus and we found we had no input in it so we were at a stalemate. Now we see where we are on stimulus today. We are negotiating with basically the authority of the majority of two over the minority of one.”