Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, when members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce first began to address a comprehensive bipartisan energy bill in the beginning of 2015, there was a sense of hopefulness, a sense of optimism that the committee would once again set the standard for working together to get things done on behalf of the American people in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation. At that time, Mr. Speaker, many of us on the minority side had enormous expectations that we would draft a bill that would move our energy policy forward in a manner befitting the challenges facing our Nation in this, the 21st century. Specifically, Mr. Speaker, from my perspective, a comprehensive energy bill would need to modernize the Nation's aging energy infrastructure, train a 21st century workforce, and address the critically important issue of manmade climate change. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, none of these issues are addressed in the bill that we are voting on here today. This 800-page hodgepodge of Republican and corporate priorities is nothing more than a majority wish list of strictly ideological bills, many of which the minority party opposes and the Obama administration and the American people do not support. Outside of just a few minor crumbs thrown in to represent the priorities of the minority party, including my workforce development legislation, the bill almost contains nothing that the American people could support or rally behind.…”