Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to say first that I appreciate the gentleman from New Mexico's point as a member of the Committee on the Judiciary. I think he has made the only appropriate statement we can make. We do not set precedents here in the way a legal court does. No Congress binds a future Congress. Mr. Speaker, the Congress retains always not the right but the responsibility to make judgments case by case, and I think the gentleman from New Mexico has fairly pointed out, should some other individuals come before the Congress and be able to make claims that Congress finds similarly meritorious, they may benefit. I do have to differ a little bit with the argument that says, well, we should not do it for anybody if we cannot do it for everybody. Mr. Speaker, we unfortunately rarely can do justice for everyone. I have myself, because I served on the Administrative Law Subcommittee which dealt with claims, on the Immigration Subcommittee, been part of bringing to this floor legislation that made some people whole when other people similarly situated were not made whole. We can never do it all, and I think it would be a mistake to say either we do all of it or we do none of it.”