Political Quotes

“the proponent of this amendment has stated it is reasonable. She wants to take the first step for the legislative branch to save money. In all due respect to my friend from Texas, the proponent of this amendment, I say the amendment is not reasonable and certainly it is not the first step. I believe those people who are pushing this amendment either do not understand what has gone on during the past 6 years in the legislative branch appropriations bill, or they choose not to understand what has gone on. Because far from this amendment being the first step to saving this branch of government money, it is way, way removed. There have been many steps taken. For example, there has been some talk that perhaps we should do something about franking. Franking, as I will indicate in a few minutes, has been cut dramatically. There has been a statement made on the floor this would force the Appropriations Committee to do something. The Appropriations Committee has not been forced to do anything in the past. We have done it because it is the right thing to do. We have cut the legislative branch Appropriations Committee dramatically. We have fewer people working in the legislative branch of Government today than we had 14 years ago. That does not sound to me like runaway inflation. It does not sound to me like we have not taken care of the legislative branch. There has been talk that this branch of government has 38,000 employees.…”