George Miller: “it is not by accident that we are here today. It is intentional. The Republicans were so giddy and so excited about the…”

“it is not by accident that we are here today. It is intentional. The Republicans were so giddy and so excited about the Starr investigation and the prospect of impeaching the President of the United States that they decided that they would not have to do any work today. The other half of them decided that they could push a right-wing agenda and foist it off on the President of the United States, they could sweep aside his State of the Union address, they could sweep aside his agenda and do nothing and go home and gain seats because they were going to impeach the President of the United States. So what did they start doing? They started reducing the workweek. They extended the time from January to March before the Congress came back. They extended the August break. They extended the July break. As a matter of fact, in the last 3 years the Republican Congress has lost 2 months of productivity. If they keep it up, by the year 2002, Congress will not meet at all. They will not meet at all because the Republicans just keep giving away the days. They did it because they thought they had the President over a barrel. Well, the fact of the matter is, once again, their streak is perfect. Speaker Gingrich and the Republican leadership four out of four years have underestimated the President of the United States, because the President is back here, telling them that he wants his agenda considered in this Congress that refused to consider it for this entire year.”