Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his comments. I want to make it clear that clearly I understand it is the democratic process that riders are offered and the House does its will. There it is. The gentleman is absolutely correct, that's the process. But I want to emphasize that we still have great concerns about the agreement that we reached not being carried out pursuant to what we believed the agreement was in terms of funding levels and 302(a) allocations; that is, the general allocation to the Appropriation Committee. I know the gentleman knows that we have that concern. I know the gentleman has also made the observation that that was a cap and not an agreed number. I will tell my friend again--I think I said this a couple of weeks ago--that undermines our willingness to make agreements if what we make an agreement on is the most that you'll do, but then come in at levels substantially below that which we think we agreed to, and in fact is in the law. I want to make it clear that was my major concern and continues to be my major concern. I understand, as all of us do on this floor, that the majority will rule on the amendments, and what amendments are adopted are adopted. There were a lot of them on the floor, as you know better than I, because there were a lot from your side, and that's appropriate. Let me ask you about the transportation conference, Mr. Leader. We are very concerned about this. We think this is a jobs bill. We think it's an important bill.…”