Steny Hoyer: “I am not one that demagogs this institution. As a matter of fact, I am very definitely opposed to demagoging this…”

“I am not one that demagogs this institution. As a matter of fact, I am very definitely opposed to demagoging this institution, on either side. Unfortunately, in the past we have seen that. It has denigrated the image of this institution with the American public. I will tell my colleagues on either side of the aisle that all of us, every one of us, is adversely impacted by that kind of debate, but we ought to be honest in the debate. And I want to say to my friends on your side of the aisle, particularly as you attacked or raised in pointed terms how we were not accurately funding the committees, and say to my friend from Michigan who says this is a freeze. It is not. There is $8,170,000 that under the Contract With America would have to have been included in this budget, because you said that what Democrats were doing were taking detailees from the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and having them on committees and not accurately reflecting the expenditures of the committee.”