Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to speak on the pending amendment, the amendment by Senator Grassley. I have a great deal of respect for the Senator from Iowa. Actually, there is a series of things I propose that are in the underlying bill that go to the heart of much of what that amendment is going to do. I would start off by saying I agree with most of what my colleagues are proposing. I agree we need to make sure we have a strong regulatory agency to act as cops on the beat. We need to make sure those cops on the beat are doing their job. I agree we should require financial regulators to respond when inspectors general identify deficiencies in their agencies--either by taking corrective action or explaining to Congress why they are not taking those actions. I agree we should require inspectors general to report to the board of the organization rather than the head of the organization. I agree we should require publication of any negative recommendations from the inspector general's peer review of the work of other inspectors general. I also agree inspectors general should not suffer any reduction in pay and that current inspectors general should keep their jobs until the new Presidential appointment system I included in the legislation kicks in. I think those are great ideas and I proposed them myself. But here is where we have a disagreement. That is that this amendment takes away something I think is incredibly important in the underlying bill.…”