Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend from Oklahoma for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H. Res. 965. This blatant, partisan move to fundamentally alter the way the House and committees operate completely undermines the rights of the minority and over 200 years of precedent. As ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am particularly concerned how this resolution overrides the rules of our committee. At the beginning of the Congress our committee negotiated with the majority a set of rules that protected minority rights. Now those rules are being thrown out and replaced by regulations written by the chairman of the Rules Committee, regulations that the minority first saw only hours ago. I don't understand why Speaker Pelosi doesn't trust her chairmen and chairwomen to negotiate with their ranking members on ways to accommodate committee business during this pandemic. But, apparently, she just doesn't trust them. One of the things that concerns me most about this resolution is that nothing guarantees that Republican Members are going to properly be notified and able to fully participate in virtual committee hearings. That may sound petty to you, but, unfortunately, on my committee, it is already the reality. For the last 2 weeks, Homeland Security Democrats have been holding virtual hearings without notifying Republican Members. To make matters worse, they restricted participation to only a handful of their Members.…”