Timothy Roemer: “Mr. Chairman, I read a book in college a long time ago called the Dance of Legislation, and it was written by an intern…”

“Mr. Chairman, I read a book in college a long time ago called the Dance of Legislation, and it was written by an intern that was up here getting experience on Capitol Hill as the pages that were just in the House well, and he tracked a bill through Congress, and it was a little bill that he thought made a big difference in the way that he could explain in this book the legislative process. Similarly before us today, we have a big bill that spends a considerable amount of money to my taxpayers in Indiana, back home where I am born and raised, where we can make a big difference with individual decisions that we make in our offices with our Member representational allowances, or MRAs. This bill that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Camp) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and I have worked on for 8 years now allows us in our offices to work as an American family does when they are trying to balance their budgets at the kitchen tables in LaPorte, Indiana; Wakarusa, Indiana; Goshen, Indiana; as a small business struggles to make its decisions meet at the year's end, so that they have a balanced budget. This bill allows us as Members of Congress to function as the American people do across this great country.”