Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank the gentleman from Illinois. This compromise only reminds me of how much I regret that he has decided to retire.…”

“I thank the gentleman from Illinois. This compromise only reminds me of how much I regret that he has decided to retire. He was such a valuable chair of our subcommittee and member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I can only wish him all the good fortune his extraordinarily productive years in the Congress have earned him. {time} 1310 But I thank both sides of the aisle for this short-term extension, short-term, I am assured, to wrap up some details. This is a bill that is really a great deal more bipartisan than it would appear. Yes, there were some tough items, as in any piece of major legislation. I do regret the major reason for the standoff. This bill, it seems to me, could have been before us long ago but for at least one provision which could have been settled, and that was the provision in the bill that would have insisted that no-shows be counted in labor elections, the no-shows be counted as for one side or the other. And in this case, they would have been counted as a ``no'' vote against joining the union. You know, you could argue just the opposite, that if you really were against the union, you're the ones who show up. So it seems to me that was a thumb on the scale, but you don't know how it would come out. And some kind of compromise has been reached on that. I will have to wait on that compromise.…”