Louise Slaughter: “I want to talk about a reform we did make. Two-and-a-half years ago in the wake of the problems in the bank and the post…”

“I want to talk about a reform we did make. Two-and-a-half years ago in the wake of the problems in the bank and the post office, I served as a member of a bipartisan task force which drafted House Resolution 423, an unprecedented effort to totally eliminate politics and patronage from the administration of the House support operations. I am saddened that on this day of reform, the new majority proposes a change to go back from professional management and businesslike personnel policies to the discredited patronage system. However, that is what they are proposing and they have already started to implement it. Let me remind Members of what we have accomplished. We have created a Director of Non-Legislative and Financial Services, with a mandate to sweep the House clean of waste and fraud and inefficiency. We have provided that both the majority and minority parties must agree on the selection of the director, so that only skill mattered, not politics. Today we turn back from that in very short time, and we have already started with a totally partisan person to administer the House.”