Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, one of my favorite things to do is go to a local high school and talk to government classes. For the past 10 years that I've been doing this, I have always told them, there are certain things that are done in the House that are there to protect the minority. One is during appropriation bills: any Member can bring any amendment to the floor on anything they want to that is germane to the bill, and the leadership can't stop them, even their own party or the other party. This past year, I wasn't able to say that anymore because for the first time in the history of this institution, every appropriation bill that came to the floor was brought under a closed rule so only the amendments that the majority wanted to be offered could be offered. Something similar is happening here. All of us have told classes that we have taught that your history books are right, if a bill passes the House and a different bill passes the Senate, the House will have to vote on it again. But here we're being told, no, you don't have to do that anymore. You can deem it passed. It just magically appears back in the Senate without having a vote here in the House. Our institution, this institution, the people's institution, deserves better than that. ____________________”