Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman, and I appreciate his advocacy. Mr. Speaker, I do want to point out some inconsistencies in the argument by my friend from Pennsylvania. In the case of Mr. Neely and in the case of Lois Lerner, under existing law, all that was required before they fired either of those individuals is to give them 30 days' notice, 30 days' written notice of the charges against them, give them the 30 days to put together a defense or to offer their version of the facts. That's all that was required, and then we could have fired them or put them on administrative leave without pay. That was within the discretion of GSA. So when GSA tells Mr. Kelly they can't do anything, there's plenty they could do. They could have taken both those employees, put them on administrative leave without pay--talk about protecting the taxpayer. I'm for that. They had the power to do that in these cases. They could have taken both those employees, under current law, with due process in place, put them both on administrative leave without pay, and we could have protected the taxpayer. That was the discretion on the part of the administration and the folks that made the decision in that place. It was not a fault of the law. But interestingly enough, it also protected us to have the second version of the facts put forward to bring more light to this. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.”