Frank Pallone: “I just listened to what my colleague from North Carolina said, and I agree with everything he said, but the problem is…”

“I just listened to what my colleague from North Carolina said, and I agree with everything he said, but the problem is that the bill, as it came out of the Committee on Commerce on a bipartisan basis, was appropriate this morning for action on the suspension list. Normally, as we all know, we put bills on the suspension list if they had been agreed to on both sides, if they are good government and we want to get them moving in an expedited fashion. The problem is that somehow when this bill left the Committee on Commerce, all these pork projects were added to it, and that now jeopardizes the legislation, which is really sad. This was a bill that was to be a model for a bill that we could get together on a bipartisan basis that would help from an environmental point of view, that would help with the public health. We had the President's support. the legislation that came out of the Committee on Commerce was very similar to what passed the Senate. So we were expediting it because we felt we could get it to the President's desk and be signed into the law. All of that is out the window now because of the action that was taken by the Republican leadership.”