John Conyers actually said...

Let's begin to see if we can thread together where we have areas of agreement here.

Somewhere in the appropriations process the funds that are paid into the Patent and Trademark Office never get back to the Patent and Tradem...

People don't pay user fees for patents as a gift to the society. They're making an investment to get a property right.

Instead of the funds that are paid to the PTO going directly to the PTO... it goes back to the Appropriations Committee.