Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, not long ago, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, said that he wanted to make the House an ``ideas factory.'' But with this bill today, it is clear that the only items being produced by the House are cookie-cutters, because we have done this before, again and again and again. House Republicans have made it their mission to kill the stream protection rule and protect the ability of coal companies to dump their mining waste wherever they want. They didn't see the rule until last July, but that hasn't kept them from a 5-year crusade to prioritize mining company profits over the health and welfare of nearby communities, wildlife, and the environment. First, they carried out a multiyear investigation into this rule, holding no less than 12 hearings and demanding tens of thousands of pages of documents, and ultimately coming up with nothing. Then they passed a bill last Congress to block the rule. Actually, they liked it so much, they passed the bill twice. Those bills, however, went nowhere. This Congress, they included a rider on the appropriations bill to block this rule and voted down my amendment to strip the rider out. The rider was eventually removed before the bill became law. This bill will suffer the same fate. It will not become law. President Obama has said he would rightly veto this bill, and there are not nearly enough votes to override that veto.…”