Steve Rothman: “What would my colleagues think of someone who stood by watching while a neighbor's house was burning down? What if that…”

“What would my colleagues think of someone who stood by watching while a neighbor's house was burning down? What if that person refused to call the fire department for help unless he or she got something in return? We would not think much of that person. Yet that is exactly what the Republican majority in Congress is doing with the flood victims in North Dakota as well as the victims in 35 other States. The President of the United States and many of us in Congress have been trying to pass a $5.5 billion disaster relief bill for these families. But the Republican majority, much like they did with the government shutdown last year, is putting extremist ideology and partisan political maneuvering ahead of the relief for these needy people. Instead of giving these families the needed relief that they so very much deserve, they are holding the disaster relief bill hostage by trying to attach highly partisan legislative riders that have nothing to do with disaster relief.”