Political Quotes

“Another thing that happens around this town is the hole in the wall gang, the Rules Committee, sits up here on the third floor in a place where you very seldom see any press from the room. And only on one occasion have I seen a television camera in the room. They control what gets debated here on the floor and what is voted on on the floor. The last time we had a legitimate open rule on our appropriations process was in the spring of 2007. That was when Speaker Pelosi first came in and got the gavel before this draconian shutdown of the open debate process. In that spring period of time through the appropriations process, I was successful in getting passed--not those I introduced--but those that actually passed this floor, nine amendments. As far as I know, that's the most amendments of any Member of Congress during that period of time. Yet I have taken dozens of amendments up to the Rules Committee and submitted them, and I can't think of a single one that they ever allowed to be debated. That process has to change. That's got to be out in the open. We need the Rules Committee on television, out front, meeting in a published hour so that they can be watched by the press and the public and then, additionally, while we are here watching what goes on with the rules and the shutdown of what's going on, we need more sunlight.”