John Conyers: “I thank my friend for helping me out there, because what we will have done, and there are some in the media that are…”

“I thank my friend for helping me out there, because what we will have done, and there are some in the media that are predicting that this is what's going to happen, that we're going to abandon all of the work that we have put into this measure. And I'm looking still after a number of decades for the Member who can concede that he's voted on the perfect bill in the legislative process. But if we abandon this at this course, months behind schedule, we're sending a perfectly obvious message to the American people; namely, that this is the sham that is working on the Congress. We've got to get this rule going. I'm happy that our colleague, the former chairman of Rules, said nothing about the amendments that have been granted by the committee in which he worked so hard over the years. We've got amendments. Some are Republican amendments, some are Democratic amendments, but for goodness sake, let's keep our promises to the American people. We campaigned on this. We said we can improve the transparency and the rules regulating lobbyists, regulating bundling, regulating reporting, increasing the penalties. We've said all of this and put it in in as perfect form as we can do here. We need now to get something to go to conference. I pledge to be open to suggestions, as I have all along the way. We've got to keep our promises, and the promises start with voting the rule to begin the debate.”