Political Quotes

“You know, the beauty of an open rule, which we did see when the Democrats had the majority and we have not seen since the Republicans took the majority, is it allows the floor debate to inspire good ideas. It allows Democrats and Republicans to bring forward amendments, subject to germaneness, that can be considered and voted upon. Frankly, it seems like the Republicans didn't have much for us to do this week. This would have been a perfect week to try an open rule; and I know that Democrats and Republicans would have, consistent with the spirit of an open rule, brought forth good ideas and offered them. Good ideas would have been included in the bill. But most importantly, we could have set a precedent that open rules work and an open process that values our contributions as legislators and as representatives of 750,000 Americans who would be able to work to improve legislation. So I think that we need to move in that direction. Let the debate on the floor and the back-and-forth inspire new collaboration between Democrats and Republicans, new ideas, new ways of working together. Here you have a concept that Democrats and Republicans join together in support of. How can we reduce the costs or the red tape around administering employee ownership? We would love to remove barriers to employee ownership that exist across all forms of employee ownership.…”