Paul Tonko: “Well, here we go again. Our to-do list continues to pile up and Republican House leadership of this legislative body--if…”

“Well, here we go again. Our to-do list continues to pile up and Republican House leadership of this legislative body--if we can even use words like ``leadership'' and ``legislative'' to describe the House anymore--has officially cemented the first session of the 113th Congress as the ``least productive of all time.'' We have not passed a budget, have not passed a farm bill, have not fixed the Voting Rights Act, or done anything in our charge to make the people's voices heard in their Nation's Capital. In fact, if recent reports in the D.C. newspapers are any indication, House leadership seems to be more concerned with planning fund-raisers in New York City than getting anything done here in Washington, D.C. The leadership of the people's House has continued to govern by sound bites and passing messaging bills that go nowhere--even shutting down the government for more than 2 weeks in the process, a painful exercise and expensive exercise. But we are about to call it a year and skip town with so much left undone. Our unemployment--or employment--rate is at its lowest point in 5 years.…”