Political Quotes

“I come to the floor often on the rule and sometimes to thank the Rules Committee for allowing an effort to strike earmarks from legislation. This is the first time I've ever come to the floor on an authorization bill or an appropriation bill where I've been completely shut out of the process, not able to offer any amendments with regard to earmarks. And it's easy to see why right now. In the past, I've always come to strike both Republican and Democratic earmarks from legislation. This time there are some 230 earmarks in the bill and only one was a bipartisan earmark request. The rest were Democratic earmark requests, no Republicans because Republicans have adopted an earmark moratorium. So this looks like the start of a pattern. It was all well and good to challenge Republican and Democratic earmarks, but if there are only Democratic earmarks in a bill, then nobody is going to be allowed to challenge them. Now, what kind of process is that? Have we come to a point where we're simply going to shield Members and their earmarks from scrutiny? We talk about disclosure till we're blue in the face and transparency, and it's all a lofty term. But then when it comes down to it, when there's only one party earmarking in a bill, when a Member comes up to challenge those earmarks, he's shut out. No, you aren't allowed to.”