Nita Lowey: “I feel very sad tonight that I cannot enthusiastically support this bill. I know how hard the gentleman from Arizona…”

“I feel very sad tonight that I cannot enthusiastically support this bill. I know how hard the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) worked on the bill and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) worked on the bill. There are a lot of Federal workers out there who depend upon the provisions of this bill. I have heard from my colleagues this evening that we had to just remove all of the controversial provisions in the bill because otherwise the bill could not get through. I just want to make it clear to my friends on both sides of the aisle that I strongly disagree with that point of view. There is a big difference between disagreeing on a provision and taking a provision out of the bill that was voted on democratically, with a small 'd,' by the majority of this House, by a voice vote in the Senate that was in the conference report. There is a big difference between taking that provision out, having the leadership of this House making a decision to take that provision out, and to remove other provisions that many of us felt were clearly political and were not supported by both the House and Senate.”