Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for his leadership on the committee. It seems like I just saw him a couple of hours ago, but only because I just saw him a couple of hours ago. Mr. Speaker, you know as well as anyone that it is hard to get things done around here. It is never made any easier by the recriminations that circulate so widely. I appreciate the Speaker's admonition about engaging in conflicts of personality. This is hard. This isn't the bill I would have voted for. In fact, it is not the bill I voted for the first time around. When this House did its job 9 months ago, when it was supposed to do its job, we voted on a completely different bill. But as my friend from Massachusetts knows full well, Mr. Speaker, if Republicans had 60 votes in the Senate, we wouldn't be going through these machinations. We go through these machinations for one reason and one reason only, and that is, after a Republican-led House gets its work done, the Senate can't. The Senate can't because they work in a much more bipartisan way. As bipartisan as this institution is, that institution is even more so by the Senate rules. We talk about this as if it is a spending bill, Mr. Speaker. I just want to be clear: this includes brownfields act reauthorization. That is the bill that lets us go into environmentally damaged areas and restore them. We haven't been able to get that done just in the normal course of doing business.…”