Political Quotes

“this is a tough vote for some of us here this afternoon. For me, I support greater spending, spending for alternative fuel, so that we can lessen our dependence on foreign oil. For me I am appalled at the ineptness and bungling of the Interior Department's troubled program to collect royalties on oil and gas and public lands in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. It needs to be investigated, and it needs to be remedied. But other items in this legislation, specifically the repeal of section 199, which will likely drive more refinery production elsewhere overseas, and thus more jobs, is not right. When Joe Barton was chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, he was rightly proud of the process. It was open and, indeed, bipartisan. Lots of debate, Democrats and Republicans, and lots of amendments were accepted, Democrats and Republicans, and the proof was in the pudding. We passed a bipartisan bill, energy bill, which included the vote of Mr. Dingell, the chairman today of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Nobody saw this bill until late last week. No hearings, no markup in subcommittee or full committee, no amendments on the House floor allowed. We know this bill is going to pass, but listening to the debate, I know it could have been a much better bill and one that could have been called bipartisan, and it would pass by a much larger margin than it will this afternoon.”