Political Quotes

“I think, like most of us, that we must address the problem of unfunded mandates. I was a cosponsor of last year's bill. I am a former local official. I understand the impact of a mandate when Washington imposes it on us at a local level. By the way, private business persons understand those impacts, too. So we have to understand that it is not just local and State governments that are concerned with mandates imposed by us. The private sector is concerned with mandates imposed by us, as well. This bill treats them differently. Sometimes the private sector and public sector are in direct competition; yet, they are treated differently in this bill. I want to talk about, first, some of the problems that I see in the bill itself. First of all, it has been suggested that because amendments are being offered--there are many amendments that are going to be offered, and there are many that are needed, and some of them have already passed--that, therefore, people are filibustering this bill. I have seen some pretty strange things in this Senate, but I have not seen many people filibuster their own bills.”