I thank the gentleman. As the gentleman knows, we believe that the bill that passed the House on the Violence Against Women Act left out a lot of women. It reduced the scope that the Senate passed with, again, a bipartisan vote with…

With respect to another piece of legislation, I would like to ask the gentleman about the Violence Against Women Act, which, again, the Senate passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion and which we passed in a relatively partisan…

Let me ask the gentleman, does the gentleman intend to go the Rules Committee to get a rule, or bring the privileged resolution directly to the floor? I yield to my friend. {time} 1330

I thank the gentleman for that information. Which means that a matter of great weight is going to be brought to the floor within just a few days of being passed out of committee, with a relatively short period of time for either debate or…

Well, I'm hopeful that we can resolve this in a way that is agreeable to at least the majority of both Houses and to the President of the United States because if we don't, as the gentleman knows, we're going to increase interest rates by…

I thank the gentleman for that information. I certainly hope that we are moving in a positive direction because we've been a long time getting to resolution of this matter. Next I would like to ask--you indicated that student loans may be…

I thank the gentleman for that information. I hope the gentleman's correct. My concern, and the concern on this side, continues to be the position--as Mr. Shuster, who is the one of the ranking members and whose dad, of course, chaired the…

Obviously, the gentleman has spoken to a number of very important pieces of legislation, and I want to talk about those. Then I want to talk about what I believe to be a diversion from the important business of this country. But I will get…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. The second bill, which we considered yesterday, would impose a radical policy on our border areas that would undermine security coordination and bring polluting industries to some of our most pristine…

I thank my friend, and I would have come up here just for that introduction. I thank him so much. I am pleased to follow my friend, the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Cantor. I'm going to have some remarks. But before I get to those…

The Senate has passed a highway bill in a bipartisan fashion with half of the Republicans in the United States Senate voting for it, and with a very conservative Republican ranking member, Jim Inhofe, and a very liberal chairwoman, Barbara…

Some of the most pressing legislative items were nowhere to be found on the floor this week. We had an opportunity to make headway on critical legislation. Unfortunately, the leadership provided no action, not solutions, not action, only…

Before I yield back, the gentlelady from California would like me to yield, and I do so.

Ladies and gentlemen of the House, all of us through our lives meet people, particularly when we were young--and I'm sure this happened to people who were with leaders of our country. Thomas Jefferson, a young man, I'm sure there were…

I don't have a rebuttal to that, so I will yield back my time. ____________________

I thank the gentleman for that information, and I want to say to the gentleman that I disagree that there is no plan. Mr. Van Hollen, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, did in fact have a plan, presented that plan, and it was…

I don't want to interrupt, other than to clarify. As I understand the two options, one was the option of making additional--in the letter I read. Maybe I'm incorrect. If you can correct me.

I thank the gentleman. Just for his information, I would be a very strong opponent of your first option, which continues to want to reduce the take-home pay of Federal employees. Federal employees, under the plans that you have passed…

Lastly, if I might, the student loan interest rate, as you know, will go up at the end of this month from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. That will add substantially additional cost to literally millions of students, some thousand dollars of…

I thank the gentleman. I appreciate his observation. Clearly we don't want to have the authority for the highway bill to expire without action, but I will reiterate my offer to my friend, the majority leader, and say that given the…

I thank the gentleman. I was not trying to make political points or rhetoric in raising the issues that I did. I frankly think that it doesn't get us very far, I would suggest to the majority leader, and we need to get someplace. America…

I thank the gentleman for that information, and I want to make the comment that the gentleman correctly congratulated the appropriations leadership on his side of the aisle. I also want to observe that on our side of the aisle there has…

I continue to be disappointed at how Republicans are approaching deficit reduction. Every day, we hear Republicans talking about the need for painful cuts to get our deficits in order. However, time and again, Republicans appear unwilling…

I want to thank Representative McGovern for his leadership on this issue, commend Ranking Member Adam Smith of the Armed Services Committee for his work on this amendment, and I congratulate Mr. Jones for his courage and for his vision…

I understand that everybody may not agree on Mr. McGovern's formulation, but that's what this body is for: to debate these issues of great importance to the people and resolve them in a democratic way. I'm sorely disappointed that this…