Political Quotes

“I love serving on the Committee on Rules. We are the last committee to touch every piece of legislation before it comes to this House. It gives us a chance to perfect some of that legislation, but it also gives us a chance to work through the rules of the House. There are some things that people think are glorious and glamorous about being a United States Congressman, Mr. Speaker, and I wish someone would send me a list of those things from time to time. I will tell you one thing that is not particularly glamorous, and that is sorting through Jefferson's Manual of procedure here. What is not particularly glamorous is reading the House rules. But if one were to do those things, Mr. Speaker, if one were to do those things, what one would find is that any Member of this Chamber can bring up any bill they wish to bring up if they can get a majority of the House to agree with them to do it. Not the majority of the House, Mr. Speaker, but a majority of the House. I am going to say that again. Any Member of this Chamber can bring up any bill in this House if only they go out and do the work of finding 218 votes to agree with them. Now, Mr. Speaker, it sounds like a lot of heavy lifting to get 218 votes to agree with you, but it turns out, if you can't get 218 votes to agree with you to bring it up, you can't get 218 votes to agree with you to pass it, so you can't move the legislation anyway.…”