Political Quotes

“This body is often fighting over things. We are at one of the most polarized points in our Nation that I have ever experienced, but in this case, this is an instance where Republicans and Democrats are coming together. I thank my good friend, Steve Cohen, not just for this bill but also for the 5-year authorization that we passed out of this Chamber back in July. I also thank Rick Larsen, the ranking member of the full committee; and, of course, Sam Graves, the full committee chairman, a good friend, and probably the best expert on aviation in the entire House of Representatives, for their work on aviation this year. {time} 1530 Mr. Speaker, I often hear people quote John Dingell, who said that the other party is the opposition, but the Senate is the enemy. In this case, I think that is exactly what we are experiencing. Right now, we are in a situation where the House of Representatives, in this very polarized environment, passed a bipartisan FAA bill that we worked on for over 18 months. The aviation team did an amazing job going through and distilling over 2,000 requests from Members of Congress and stakeholders and generating a bill, while not a metric of success, over 900 pages, ultimately passing the House Transportation Committee unanimously and passing the House of Representatives by a vote of 351 to only 69 people who didn't understand the bill. Mr. Speaker, that shows huge momentum.…”