Political Quotes

“I rise not only as a Member, but also as the Chairman of the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee, and I first want to thank Chairman Dreier and Mr. Diaz-Balart for their work in crafting what I think is a fair rule in the debate we have today and perhaps tomorrow. From the start, this has been, I think, a very fair and open process. And I must note that the Barton-Rush-Upton-Pickering bill, H.R. 5252, has been fair and open from the very start. In fact, I would note that when you look at the number of cosponsors, and this bill was filed after we completed the markup in full committee, H.R. 5252, and after we completed the markup, not beforehand but after, 15 Democrats from the Energy and Commerce Committee cosponsored the legislation. That perhaps is one of the reasons why it passed in subcommittee 27-4, overwhelming; and 42-12 before the full committee. The process has been open. We have had lots of hearings, lots of discussions. We have had lots of viewpoints, lots of panels. We have heard from just about anyone with any interest at all in this legislation as it has moved through this process. We looked at a number of staff drafts, many of them with Member input. Some Members might want to decline to have Members' input, but in any case we had lots of debate and lots of issues that we looked at, starts and stops, and at the end of the day I think that the process, most Members would say, was very fair. What was the intent of what we were trying to do?…”