Political Quotes

“yesterday, the House sent the Senate a bipartisan reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. The bill the House passed reflects the negotiated agreement that was struck between Republican and Democratic leaders. They worked hard to come up with an agreement. As one would expect with an agreement of that nature, the House passed it with a very strong vote. The vote was 330 to 93. Every single Democrat voted for the measure. Only the far right tea party wing of the House Republican caucus voted against the bill--93 of them. So it was 330 to 93. The House considered no amendments. The House passed the bill on a suspension calendar. For those of us who served in the House, that is a bill that comes up and there is almost no debate. It takes a two-thirds vote to pass it. They do it for noncontroversial items. This measure is noncontroversial. It should have never been controversial. We brought it up 2 months ago, and we were stunned when the Republicans would not let us move forward on it. So the House did the right thing yesterday. This is the sort of bill the Senate should now simply pass without amendment. It is so unusual here. I have been in Congress 30 years. But this is a new one. Even bills that they agree on they want to mess around with. In years past, this would have gone through just like this. Forget about what took place 2 months ago. But now the House passed something 330 to 93, and we are here playing around with it. It should be done.…”