On the recordFebruary 11, 2015
To thank my friend for his well wishes and to tell him I am sympathetic to the hamster wheel scenario that he describes. I don't particularly enjoy these opening weeks of a new Congress, Mr. Speaker, because committees haven't gotten organized, legislation hasn't started to flow, and it puts the committee in the very unfortunate situation of having to act as the legislator, as the authorizer, to begin moving pieces of legislation to the floor. That is unfortunate. But that is not the situation we are talking about today, Mr. Speaker. What we are talking about today is a bill that not only passed the floor of the House but went to the Senate, a bill that not just went to the Senate but went through that wonderful open debate process that my friend from Florida described and has now come back to us today. Four years we have been trying to move this bill forward, Mr. Speaker. It is a closed rule here today so that we can act on the same legislation that the Senate has passed, so we can send this bill to the President's desk, so we can get off the hamster wheel of futility that my friend from Florida describes. I am optimistic, Mr. Speaker. But it doesn't happen by itself. It happens with years and years of work. So with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), whose advocacy and leadership have made having this bill on the floor today possible.
