Political Quotes

“I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts has 7 minutes remaining. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we are bringing to the floor two bills today that I think are bad bills. But, nonetheless, they represent the thinking of the Republicans who are in charge of this Congress. What is particularly distressing to me is that, on one of those measures, it is being brought to the floor under a completely closed process. As I mentioned, last night, the ranking member of the Education and the Workforce Committee came before the Rules Committee to offer three germane amendments, and the Rules Committee said: No, you don't have the right to have a debate on your ideas, even though they are perfectly germane, on the House floor. I think that is lousy. As a result, we come today and we make history. This is now officially the most closed Congress ever in the history of our country. My friends on the other side of the aisle are getting up and talking about how proud they are. They talk about bipartisanship. What they don't tell you is that most of the bipartisanship are on things that really don't mean a lot: naming of post offices and bills that pass by 435-0. On big things, on important issues, they block us. I mentioned some of the things they blocked.…”