Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I am not opposed to this amendment. As corrected, it would add a bill that we previously passed in the Natural Resources Committee by unanimous consent and then here on the floor on suspension by a voice vote. I say I am not opposed to this amendment as corrected because this is the amendment that I referenced earlier. The amendment that Republicans accidentally made in order, a version of this amendment that was drafted so badly that would have deleted the entire text of the Fix Our Forests Act. In other words, it wouldn't have just added Mr. Valadao's bill to the overall legislation. It would have deleted the overall bill and replaced it with Mr. Valadao's bill, which, as I noted, is a noncontroversial bill that Democrats support. Republicans came to Democrats this morning to ask for our help in fixing that mistake. My concern here is that that is reflective of a process problem: the sloppy drafting in the underlying bill, the refusal to incorporate well-intentioned feedback from the administration, and the exclusion of committee Democrats from developing this bill. This is bad process. I am not opposed to this amendment, which already passed the House floor on suspension, but one good amendment is not enough to fix the bad bill. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.”