Maurice Hinchey: “I am very interested in a good relationship. Reclaiming my time, I am very interested in maintaining good relationships.…”

“I am very interested in a good relationship. Reclaiming my time, I am very interested in maintaining good relationships. I am very interested in maintaining comity. I am very interested in maintaining respect. I am also very interested in maintaining respect for the work of our Members of the House. And I mean no personal attack in any way on the gentleman who offered the amendment. However, I believe that there is an insincere result that comes about as a result of it. If there had been a sincere interest in addressing the obvious needs, health care needs of Native Americans, then that attempt could have been made during the full committee. The gentleman is a member of the subcommittee. It could have been made during the subcommittee; it was not. If there had been a sincere interest in addressing the needs of Native Americans in terms of their health care, that could have been done during the full committee by the gentleman who offered this amendment; it was not. If there had been a sincere concern for the legitimate health care needs of Native Americans, this amendment that we have now could have come before us in the context of this debate which has been going on for some time, and a great many others who have offered amendments have found offsets for those amendments. In fact, every single amendment that came from this side of the House had an offset to it.”