Political Quotes

“as all of us know, we have been considering for a number of years now the question of how we ensure that we have ethical conduct in this body, but more importantly, how we give confidence to the American people that we are handling their business in a fashion which they can trust and be proud of. It is a difficult effort. We had scheduled for tomorrow a rule which would have established a process of access and oversight that many believe would be an improvement. The committee that was set up was chaired by Mr. Capuano, and Mr. Smith, Lamar Smith, was his ranking member or cochair. Mr. Smith just an hour ago or so, or 2 hours ago, brought a new proposal, which we had not seen, to the Rules Committee. We have asked Mr. Capuano about that proposal. He has indicated that he wants an opportunity to review it because he had not seen it before. In light of that, I have had discussions with the other side of the aisle with reference to a procedure in which we would not consider the rule that was proposed, the rules change that was proposed, tomorrow.”