Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say the chairman's description of how this process was done was absolutely 100 percent accurate. The sense of bipartisanship that went into the writing of this bill, the sense of purpose in shared values on caring for our veterans, the sense of dignity and respect that was given to the minority side in dissenting opinions both from the chairman and his staff was exemplary and what we should all expect out of our leadership. This is a piece of legislation that has components of it that have literally been with me or been on my mind or things that I have tried to effect for literally two-thirds of my life--24 years in that uniform and 12 years here. Much of this, I am proud to have been part of the original authors with the chairman in writing that, and it brings me to a strange position today. I am rising personally in opposition, and I say that this will be my last opportunity to vote on the Choice Act. I will be leaving this Congress after this term, and after many positive things--and I have said it time and time again. The leadership that the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) is showing will probably not be parallel in terms of care for veterans in the way that he has approached this. This piece of legislation is critically important--the caregivers piece in it, the piece on dealing with VA assets and how we look at capacity going forward, and, of course, Choice.…”