Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I will be brief in opening. This is, in fact, a highly bipartisan, bicameral bill that is, by God, overdue. Not since the nineties have we done a full authorization to deal with the expansion of our country and of the adjudication of Federal laws. The fact is this passed the Senate overwhelmingly. It had essentially no real adversaries. It costs just 5 percent of the discretionary bill, and it saves countless billions of dollars. The reality is this bill would have passed by unanimous consent had we brought it sooner. I apologize to everyone here for the hour we are taking about something that we should have done before the elections and done it quickly. Nevertheless, we are where we are. We are faced with a choice today. Do we add to the judgeships for the first time in 20 years and for nearly 40 since it was done by an ordinary legislation rather than appropriations, or do we, again, add to the backlog that is costing American businesses countless billions of dollars in excess time and fees and uncertainty as to the outcome? Do we continue to have criminals allowed to plead out because there isn't court time and U.S. Attorneys are faced with the decision of what to do with somebody when, in fact, there just isn't enough time to get them through? There are over three-quarters of a million cases in backlog and only about 600 judges to do it.…”