Darrell Issa: “Mr. Speaker, you have noticed I have spoken with great passion here today about this bill. I would wish that I could be…”

“Mr. Speaker, you have noticed I have spoken with great passion here today about this bill. I would wish that I could be speaking with the passion in the positive, because the Federal workers deserve a bill that we didn't bring to the floor today. They deserve one that would allow for flexibility of sick leave, transferability, transparently to people who are having families, whether by adoption or by natural birth. That is what we should be bringing to the floor. We could do so at a time of shortages around the country at no cost to the taxpayer. We could do it exactly the way the gentlelady from New York described. Mrs. Maloney does not get new money for a new perk for her people. She chooses within a budget to in fact provide that benefit. And I commend her for that, and I commend the other Members who make decisions how to allocate a fixed pie of money, whether it's to go on sending constituent mail or providing paying benefits to the employees that answer the mail from constituents. So today we are not being given the bill we should be given. The bill we should give is to guarantee the ability to not lose pay when taking family medical leave but to use resources that are already available within the Federal system. That's not happening today. I regret that that's not happening. Had we been allowed to bring the amendments that we wanted to bring, we would have accomplished that.”