Political Quotes

“Reserving the right to object, I served as an economic regulator of utilities for nearly 10 years before coming to Congress. This idea of a moratorium--a national moratorium--violates all kinds of things, not the least of which, by the way, seems to me to be, at the very least, the spirit, if not the literal Constitution that my colleague from Oregon says he is so proud of. Remember, the States created the Federal Government, not the other way around. As a State regulator of natural gas and electric utilities, I saw from time to time the attempted overreach of the Federal Government to mandate things. It violates the principles of the Constitution, and it violates, really, the best practices of States' rights, of communities' rights, of rural electric's rights because it assumes that somehow we here in these Chambers know better than the utility regulators who are appointed by Governors--the ones who are elected, like I was--the municipalities that set the rates for water and sewer; that somehow we are better equipped to make the decisions for a local utility and, yes, their consumers; that somehow we are better at doing that. It makes no sense. In fact, it would be very harmful to the very consumers the Senator from Oregon says he wants to look out for. Let's just take some examples. Utilities are not capitalized to provide services for free. That is what this bill would do.…”