Richard Gephardt: “Ronald Reagan stood in this Chamber nearly a decade ago and attacked the Congress for sending him a massive last-minute…”

“Ronald Reagan stood in this Chamber nearly a decade ago and attacked the Congress for sending him a massive last-minute appropriation bill. Well, here we go again. This bill is 4,000 pages long and weighs over 40 pounds. And at that time Ronald Reagan said, Congress should not send another one of these and, if you do, he said, I will not sign it. Well, here they go again. This bill is a symbol of the wasted time and misguided priorities of a Republican Congress whose leadership consumed our agenda with investigations instead of legislation. Thanks to the Republican leadership, we have worked the fewest days and passed the fewest bills in decades. We did not even pass a budget resolution in this House of Representatives, the first time since the Budget Act passed 24 years ago. For the last year Republicans in Congress have tried to focus the debate on anything except what is really significant to our future. They have had far more enthusiasm for subpoenas than for schools, and they would rather talk about the FBI than the IMF. We were able to convince a reluctant and unwilling Republican majority to include funding for 100,000 new teachers in this bill, teachers that will help reduce class size and improve the quality of our children's education.”