Political Quotes

“I do have to speak up for Iowa, although I wish Iowa was playing in the national championships coming up. Mr. Speaker, not long ago, Members and leaders of the current majority party of the House spent countless hours attempting to draw the attention of the American people to what they defined as a culture of corruption here in Congress. Hoping to use this, they wanted to turn this phrase, usher in a new Democratic majority. That was their wish on election night that Members of the new majority stood in this Chamber prior to that, and on numerous soap boxes across the country and promised that if the American people gave them the chance to run things here on Capitol Hill, they would do things differently. Mr. Speaker, I agree that things should be done differently here in this body. Last year in the 109th Congress, I introduced H.R. 4967, the Sunlight Act, and that was of 2006. This bill would have, on a number of things, required that bills, conference reports, joint resolutions and amendments be available to the public on the Internet in a searchable format before a bill could be voted on. It also would have required and will require, if passed, privately funded travel be approved in advance by the Rules Committee with the costs being fully disclosed in 5 days.”