Political Quotes

“Good morning. Good morning, and let me just say welcome back to all of you. It has been a long year since you were here last, but over the course of the year I think you all know we lost former Speaker Tom Foley. We lost our good friend Bill Young. And over the course of the last 6 months or so we have had a number of retirements, from Henry Waxman and George Miller, to Dave Camp and Doc Hastings, Buck McKeon, and my good friend Tom Latham. And so the institution, the institution is actually doing pretty well. I know from the outside people don't quite see that, but I think a lot of you know I am committed to an open process on the floor, amendments from both sides of the aisle. We have had a much more open process, and I think the result of that is we are beginning to see more bipartisan legislation. Last week we came to an agreement with the House and the Senate in a bipartisan, bicameral way on a job training and retraining bill to consolidate programs and make it easier for people to get the kind of training they need for the jobs that are out there today. And then when it comes to the appropriations process, we have been trying to restart this process over the last 3 or 4 years. Today on the floor I think we have got our seventh appropriations bill of the year. Of course, you know, our challenge is always across the Capitol, because they have done exactly none, no appropriation bills.…”