Daniel Glickman: “I rise in support of this rule and this bill. I am a bit amused listening to my good friend, the gentleman from Texas…”

“I rise in support of this rule and this bill. I am a bit amused listening to my good friend, the gentleman from Texas, the secretary of the Republican conference. On the one hand, he and others argue that the bill is not tough enough, citing uncommon allies like the New York Times and Common Cause, and then the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay], if I am paraphrasing him correctly, says that the provisions of the bill are oppressive, that we work too hard to be burdened by the requirements of this bill, and he cites this morning that he was very busy and that he has been busy the last few days, and we are all very busy. But it strikes me what he is basically saying is the bill's provisions are too tough. And I think that is the argument against this bill we are getting from people who do not like it, is they think the provisions, the burdens, the lobbying requirements, the restrictions on getting gifts are too tough and that we should perhaps abide by a lesser standard, a lower standard of rules, and I think that is the issue in this bill.”