Political Quotes

“But there is something terribly wrong about the way that this legislation is being brought before us here on the floor of the House of Representatives. Mr. Speaker, we all recognize that unfunded Federal mandates have become a very serious concern to State and local governments as well as to the private sector. We are all eager to respond to that concern. But the bill that this rule makes in order is not the kind of reasonable, sound, well-thought-out response that our State and local partners or for that matter all Americans deserve. I therefore join with the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Moakley] and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Frost] in urging that our colleagues vote no on the rule so that the bill will be returned to the committees of jurisdiction where it can be reviewed and reconsidered before it is brought to the floor for our consideration. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made much of the fact that they have produced an open rule for considering H.R. 5. They say that all of the issues we are concerned about in the bill can be raised through the amending process on the floor. That may sound fair and reasonable, but the fact is that the floor is not the appropriate place to write a bill.”