Timothy Roemer: “I rise deeply disappointed with this rule, but strongly supportive of this bipartisan bill. There is an old saying about…”

“I rise deeply disappointed with this rule, but strongly supportive of this bipartisan bill. There is an old saying about partisanship being left at the water's edge with regard to foreign policy. Well, bipartisanship should not be left in the Committee on Rules when we have worked so hard for a bipartisan bill. We have worked going back to December with meetings that many of us had, Republicans and Democrats alike, with then President-elect Bush in Austin; and we built on that negotiation and that discussion to put a bill together in our committee, working with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Schaffer), and on our side, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), and the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink), we put education reform and children over bickering and politics. We have also worked on trying to combine some very important elements, the elements of a fair locally devised test with remediation and resources to help poor children that are not passing some of those tests.”