Virginia Foxx: “My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have continued to malign what they call a ``political process.'' Regular…”

“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have continued to malign what they call a ``political process.'' Regular order, Mr. Speaker, is not political process. The SKILLS Act has been posted online for nearly a month. The Higher Education and Workforce Training Subcommittee held a legislative hearing on this bill on February 26, and a full committee markup last Thursday. Unfortunately, the Democrats opposed the open transparent process of markup and instead requested that members of the committee hold closed-door negotiations. During the markup, the Democrats ultimately walked out and refused even to offer amendments. This is not what the American people asked for in the 2012 elections. They asked us to work together in a transparent, bipartisan way to address our country's challenges, and we gave our colleagues that opportunity. They refused it. Last year, the committee accepted four Democrat amendments during consideration of the Workforce Investment Improvement Act, the predecessor of the SKILLS Act. These four amendments are retained in the base text of the SKILLS Act, hardly a partisan approach. My Republican colleagues and I on the Education Committee have shown we're willing and ready to work with our Democrat colleagues, and it's unfortunate that they instead chose a partisan walkout.…”