Frank Pallone: “I want to thank the chairwoman and commend her for putting together a bill which, while it reduces the amount of money…”

“I want to thank the chairwoman and commend her for putting together a bill which, while it reduces the amount of money from the original Heroes Act, in my opinion, because of the lessons we have learned in the last few weeks, improves the Heroes Act because of what we have learned. I know that is not an easy task, Madam Chair. I know that is not an easy task, what you have accomplished here today, so I want to congratulate you. I also want to say, in response to my colleague on the other side from Ohio, this is a serious attempt to put something forward that we believe that the Republicans can support. Now, maybe they are not going to do it today. But I just want to say that our Speaker--when I say ``our,'' I mean the Speaker, because she is, you know, the Speaker for the entire House and the entire country--has worked so hard over the last few weeks and months to try to come together with the Republicans. She just met yesterday, and maybe even today again, with Mr. Mnuchin from the White House. To suggest in any way that this is anything other than a serious attempt by Democrats to put forward something that we think the Republicans can ultimately adopt, or come close to what they would ultimately support, I think is unfortunate because that is what we are doing here today.…”