Patsy T. Mink: “I must say that going into this, I did not expect to be able to reconcile all the various differences that we held on…”

“I must say that going into this, I did not expect to be able to reconcile all the various differences that we held on the majority and the minority side. It took an amazing amount of work on the part of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) and the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) to put this together. In the process of reconciling many of our differences, one of the salient points that made it possible in my opinion for us to come forward with this bipartisan bill was the assurance that many of the amendments that the Democrats wanted to offer to be included in the major legislation would be given an opportunity to be debated on the floor. With that assurance, we gave up the opportunity for major debate on these items in the committee as we deliberated on the consensus bill. So I cannot begin to describe my huge disappointment that the Committee on Rules did not permit two of the most important Democratic amendments that we have been talking about for years.”