Political Quotes

“I want to begin by thanking my friend. We serve together on the Rules Committee. It is very seldom that I would disagree with my friend, who not only has a distinguished record here, but a distinguished record in law enforcement. And let me make it clear. I am quite content to let the body work its will on this matter. I appreciate my friend actually bringing it forward. I think it is important to discuss. I had not really thought about this a great deal until I saw my friend's amendment. I don't lease a vehicle through my office at all. Although we have discussed it and looked at it, it just never seemed to be appropriate or make sense for us. We do have 63 Members, however, who do do this practice. The average cost of the vehicle is $589. Now, I can't tell you that I have taken a survey of all 63, but I have talked to a few--just sort of tell me what your reasoning is--and the responses are pretty diverse. But you could break it into two or three categories. First, some of them cover exceptionally large districts, and they find this the most cost-effective way to actually cover it, I mean, even to the point of saying, as one Member said: I go through rough terrain to reach remote areas. I need a vehicle that, frankly, is quite a bit more robust than members of my staff have or that I even have personally, sometimes, to reach some of my constituents. I thought that was a pretty impressive reason.…”