Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, much of what the gentleman from Wisconsin has said, I have to agree with. I think we could wrap up our business very rapidly, but for other reasons, we are not. I would say we are making progress. We are not sitting around doing nothing. The fact is we expect that today, for example, the Interior bill will be resolved and filed with the House, and the Labor-Health bill by the end of the week will, for all intents and purposes, be finalized and be ready for House action next week. But in addition to appropriations matters, let me say that the Congress still has yet to complete action on the ISTEA legislation, which deals with funding of transportation projects. That will have to be done between now and the time that we adjourn, and a matter of great importance to the President, if not to the other side of the aisle, is this whole matter of fast track, which deals with the authorization of the President to negotiate trade deals with our Latin American friends and allies. The President has said that it is very important to him and to the future of the country, and I tend to agree with him. However, if you do a nose count at this point, the fact is that the President has been very unpersuasive with his Members of his own party.”