Political Quotes

“My colleagues, several years ago when the current Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, had my job as the minority leader, she said that bills should generally come to the floor under a fair and open process with amendments allowed and substitutes allowed. And yet here we are today once again violating the very words that she said how the minority should be treated by bringing a bill to the floor, a Senate bill with amendments crafted by the House with no opportunity for amendments, no opportunity for substitutes. And no opportunity to vote straight up or down on the bipartisan bill that came over from the Senate. I think that what we have seen here is just a pattern of we are for this, we create rules that allow the minority the opportunity to be fairly heard, and yet they are routinely violated. And so the only way we can have a straight up-or-down vote on the Senate bill that passed the Senate 68-29, the only way we can have a vote on that is to defeat the previous question.”