Rob Woodall: “I confess to you, I usually use the time that the Reading Clerk is reading the rule to collect my thoughts and think…”

“I confess to you, I usually use the time that the Reading Clerk is reading the rule to collect my thoughts and think about what the bill is before us today and how I am going to try to persuade my colleagues to vote ``yes.'' But we only got about 15 seconds of the Reading Clerk this morning because this rule is so straightforward and so simple. I am thinking, why is it--because I sit on the Rules Committee. I think we do good work up there. Good work is sometimes complicated work. Why is it that the rule is so short today? And the answer is because we are in conference report season, Mr. Speaker. We are in conference report season. We have already done the hard work in committee. We have already done the hard work on the floor. The Rules Committee has already done the hard work of sorting through dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of amendments. The Senate has done the same hard work. And we are now here on the conclusion of that work, on the first long-term transportation bill in more than a decade. Mr. Speaker, Democratic administrations, Democratic Presidents, Democratic Houses, Democratic Senates have failed to do what we are doing today. Republican administrations, Republican Presidents, Republican Houses, Republican Senates have failed to do what we are doing today. In divided government today, Mr.…”