Political Quotes

“I thank my friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. Barletta, for organizing this Special Order tonight. I have to say that I never assumed it would be easy to get an answer quickly from a massive bureaucracy of the Federal Government like the Internal Revenue Service, but I have to admit that I never thought it would be this hard either, especially on a question important to the safety of communities across my district and across our great country. My question to the previous IRS chief--and more recently the new agency head--has been a simple one: Can you clarify the rules within the President's health care law as they relate to volunteer firefighters? As my colleagues here tonight have noted, confusion exists within the first responder community about the effects of the health care law's mandates and the IRS's definition of an employee, which currently, as we have heard tonight, covers volunteer firefighters. Yet the question goes unanswered, and I can't offer any information or comfort to the fire departments who would be the one's hurt by the misguided mandate. One way or the other, they just want to know so they can keep on serving their communities. I would like to read just two emails of many, many emails that I have heard from my district about the importance of this situation.…”