Political Quotes

“Again, just as a reminder for the many of the tens of people who are watching at home, this en bloc amendment contains 38 Democrat amendments. In contrast to the en bloc No. 3 that we just considered that contained all of the Republican amendments, only 19 were considered there. So that represents, again, 8 percent of the total number of amendments that were made in order. And there are a good number of these amendments, by the way, that are offered by Members on the committee. In fact, I mean, there are an awful lot of them. And it just underscores how this process has been so flawed and so ill-conceived. Back in the not-too-distant past--I have been on this committee now for 11 years--we would bring a bill to committee to mark up, and it was agreed upon by the four principals of the committee. And the amendments would be agreed upon by the four principals of the committee, and that is how we achieved bipartisanship. Those days, apparently, are gone. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).”