Political Quotes

“This is the, I believe, sixth time that I've come to the floor during this Congress to call for disclosure and full transparency throughout the Federal Government. So this is not my first time on the floor on this issue. I've risen on many bills, and I will continue to because I think it's really critical to help restore the confidence of the American people in their government and how it operates. I maintain the view, and it's shared by the majority of the American people, that transparency in the use of our tax dollars is absolutely critical. I want to pay tribute to my colleague, Mr. Ellison, for offering this amendment, and together we support it and offer it to the full House. I believe that with public dollars come public responsibilities. There are thousands of companies who do business with the Federal Government, and they receive billions of dollars--of public dollars-- for their services and products. And I think that all of our constituents deserve to know whether and how they spend these dollars and whether they are used to influence our elections. The amendment I'm offering with Congressman Ellison will provide this transparency by requiring that post-award contractors or subcontractors--which is very important, we don't want to interfere with the contracting process whatsoever, but once they have been awarded a contract--disclose all political contributions. This should be the norm of the day.…”