Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As we look at this particular piece of legislation, the real genesis of this came from very troubling testimony that a number of us on both sides of this aisle heard in hearing after hearing. It was not one agency. It has been a plethora of agencies that seem to have communication that is going on, Mr. Speaker, on a regular basis that is not being preserved. Now, part of this is accountability; part of this is historical. Can you imagine what our Founding Fathers would do if they had communicated to one another and never preserved the letter or the communication that had taken place between them? What would our history be? It would be filled with a number of holes. So, from a historical perspective, we have the real duty to require it for our children and our grandchildren to understand what goes on in government. But, from an accountability standpoint, I think that is where most Americans are focusing these days, Mr. Speaker. They don't understand why we continue to lose email after email, while there seems to be hard drive problems at the IRS that transcend all logical comprehension of why so many hard drives would have failed. I have a hard time understanding that as well. Regardless of those issues, if we enact this particular bill--and I thank the ranking member from Maryland because he has, indeed, with his amendment made this bill better. It is stronger, and I thank him for his support.…”