Timothy Roemer: “Mr. Chairman, there have been a lot of pundits that have been talking already about what the 1994 November elections…”

“Mr. Chairman, there have been a lot of pundits that have been talking already about what the 1994 November elections meant. And some people have been saying that they were an endorsement of the contract and some people have been saying that Democrats did not turn out to vote. I think an interpretation of the 1994 elections were about what we have been doing for the last couple of days. They are about common sense and bipartisanship. They are about common sense: Many of us on both sides of this aisle working together to pass a balanced budget amendment, to prohibit unfunded mandates, to make Congress live under the same laws that it wants other people to live under. We have done that together in a bipartisan way. Now we have got an amendment before this body that is asking some of your on the Republican side to work in a commonsense bipartisan way with us. We are asking you not to get away from your party and tell them they are wrong. We are telling you that this is language that you voted for, not on one previous occasion but on two previous occasions.”