Political Quotes

“Everyone has gone back to their offices but you and me, and I appreciate you sticking around to get this hour in. It is not going to be an exciting hour. Ordinarily, I bring down charts and graphs and try to share something in a visual way that folks might not have seen before. Today, it is just words, because words matter. Mr. Speaker, we have just finished in this Chamber this fantastic-- you have heard me say it--it was a festival of democracy. Every Member who had an amendment, they brought them to the Rules Committee. We made over a hundred of them in order. It has been 3 days, Mr. Speaker, and we passed in a very bipartisan way Federal transportation policy for the first time in more than a decade. Democrats had failed to get it done. Republicans had failed to get it done. We, as 435 individual Members representing diverse constituencies across the Nation, came together today and we got it done. They said it wouldn't be done. Chairman Bill Shuster said it could be done. Ranking Member Pete DeFazio of Oregon said it could be done, and we did it. Something has happened, Mr. Speaker, in this town that has people identifying as Democrats or Republicans first and as Members of this body, of the Article I legislature, second. It is bad. It is bad for the country, and it is bad for the people we represent. It is a bad process. Mr. Speaker, that is what I want to talk about today.…”