Political Quotes

“I yield myself 1 minute to respond. At this point in the 112th Congress, the Judiciary Committee has found time to hold several hearings. I have been informed that they have held hearings on topics that are certainly important--immigration, relating to health care and malpractice--and yet this topic that is being discussed today, something that is so fundamental to our identity as Americans, has not benefited from a single hearing in the 112th Congress. And one cannot say, oh, it's because they haven't had hearings or they're just reconstituting themselves. I have been informed that they have actually had several hearings to date; they have just simply been on other topics. Apparently, this hearing isn't important enough to warrant a hearing in the early part of the 112th Congress. One of the difficulties in exercising oversight with regard to section 215 is that the orders are prohibited from being disclosed that they got an order to anyone but their attorneys. So we have very little ability, absent a classified briefing, which we have not been offered, to even find out if section 215 has been abused or not. With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).”