Political Quotes

“I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Chair, you don't strike the right balance between an inventor's constitutional right to file for an invention and giving a patent czar the authority to keep him out of the box by allowing him to raise the fees. Mr. Smith from Texas said it himself; he coupled patent backlog with the ability of the patent director to set the fees. That can only lead to one conclusion: They're going to raise the fees in order to cut down on the patent backlog. It doesn't make sense. This is the people's House. The Patent Office is the people's house for the little inventor. He must have every opportunity to exercise his constitutional right and file that patent. But if Congress cedes the authority to set those fees to a new authority of the patent director-- or we can call him now the patent czar--that patent czar will control for 7 years, at the minimum, the flow of traffic coming through his office. And you know who gets slowed? Do you know who gets hurt? It's the little guy. And the purpose of my amendment is to protect the little guy to make sure those fees are not raised, and also to make sure that the people in this country elect representatives in Congress because it's our job to set the fees, not the job of an unelected person, the person in charge of the Patent Office. I would therefore urge my colleagues to vote for the Manzullo amendment, to support the little inventor, to support the spirit of entrepreneurship in this country.…”