Louise Slaughter: “let me make it clear at the outset that if our motion to recommit passes, it will simply substitute for a sham bill a…”

“let me make it clear at the outset that if our motion to recommit passes, it will simply substitute for a sham bill a real reform bill. Mr. Speaker, an interesting new poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal and NBC News came out last week. One of its findings is that 78 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. That means that four out of every five people walking the streets today in America are not happy about what goes on here in this Capitol Building. There are a lot of reasons Americans are not happy with Congress, Mr. Speaker, and let me list a few of them. They are not happy that this Congress allowed their energy industry buddies to write a national energy policy that is earning the oil companies record profits and costing the rest of us more than $3 a gallon at the gas station. They are not happy that special interests have been allowed into the back rooms to write legislation that benefits them but not the American people. They are not happy that these days Members can get away with doing almost anything unless it is so bad it gets the attention of the Justice Department. The Republican leadership can read the polls, too. They figured out they are in trouble, so they put together this so-called reform bill to show Americans that at long last they are ready to clean up their act. But the problem is this is not a serious bill.…”