Mark Takano: “What I would like to do on the floor today is not more bickering and arguing. It is a plea. It is a plea to the Speaker…”

“What I would like to do on the floor today is not more bickering and arguing. It is a plea. It is a plea to the Speaker and the leadership of this House to bring the home act to the floor. It is a Republican bill. It is a bipartisan bill. We can do more than this resolution. With all due credit to my colleague from Wisconsin for this resolution, we can do more than words on a resolution. We can take action. We can help veterans who are going to be forced out of aging at home and into a nursing home. We can help those veterans stay in their homes with the legislation offered by my colleague from California, Julia Brownley, the Elizabeth Dole act. Mr. Speaker, let me respond to my colleague, the chairman. I did not bring up the issue of the lost time with a Speakerless House. I would reject the suggestion that the 21 days we lost of floor time was because Democrats voted to do what they would normally do, which is they vote for their own nominee for Speaker. {time} 1730 I am not even arguing about lost time. I am arguing that we do have time that could be better used. Instead of endless 2-minute votes on amendments that both sides have voted against stacked on top of each other, we could have used that time to bring the HOME Act to the floor. We could have used that time to bring the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act to the floor. Both bills are bipartisan.…”