Political Quotes

“I think the gentleman raises an important point, how much time do people have to read the final product of a negotiation. I was hopeful, frankly, that the bill would have been filed today. It is not ready for filing today because there are still some outstanding issues. But I have talked to Mr. Smith, the chairman of the committee, who indicates they are making progress and they are hopeful they can get this done. So the Committee on Rules notice is subject obviously to the completion of negotiations and the filing. It is not done, not filed today. We need to have it filed as soon as possible. The conferees are working on getting that. As the gentleman points out, this bill tends to be, historically on both sides of the aisle, where we add a lot of things to it, which are not necessarily directly related but are because this bill is something that we want to pass and that we do pass--and we will pass this one. It garners riders, if you will, on the bill. That is still going on, but I am cognizant, and the gentleman is correct, we want to have sufficient time for Members to see the bill. We would like to do this bill next week, if we can, because, as the gentleman points out, this is about the national security of our country and our participation in international stabilization efforts around the world, not the least, of course, is the unprovoked, illegal war initiated by Mr. Putin in Ukraine. So we are hopeful we can get this done as soon as possible.”