Political Quotes

“I rise to ask for a vote, a positive vote, on the rule on a bipartisan basis. Mr. Speaker, this is the last appropriation out. By all rights, it should have been the first, considering the condition of the District of Columbia and considering that there is only a token amount of Federal funds. I am coming to this floor to ask permission to spend my own money. I do not know what the rest of the Members would do if they had to do this. This is a caboose appropriation held up in the Senate, as Members have heard, over an issue completely unrelated. I could not be more in sympathy with the gentlewoman from Florida [Mrs. Meek]. If my appropriation has been treated regrettably, she has been treated most unfairly, and I pledge to her that I will do all in my power to monitor this matter to see that the compromise that has been achieved is carried out and to see that full justice is done in legislation when we return. This bill has been cleansed of the issues that would have gotten a veto. Some of them would have been micromanagement of the District. Others would have been ideological issues. We have gone from micromanaging the District to micromanaging the Control Board. We have to stop that. The Control Board is not above criticism, and I have been among its critics, but the fact is that these are five distinguished people working for no pay who are trying to do an almost impossible job. We ought to reinforce them, unless they get way off the mark.”