Political Quotes

“I am pleased to stand in the House today and support this legislation. I want to commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), the gentleman from California (Mr. Martinez), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) and all of those who were a part of bringing this issue together. We should not be here today. The Department of Labor and Industry should not be in this issue. There was not a history of danger out there, not a history of people being harmed. A lot of the criticism, or all of it has been about safety. This legislation includes supervision by an adult relative or an adult of the same religious sect; the placement of protective barriers. We just heard that the lumber industry is the most dangerous. Yes, it is. The most dangerous part is the falling of trees. They are not going to be doing that. The next most dangerous part is running saws and planers and equipment. They are not going to be doing that. They are going to be doing odd jobs in the mill, stacking lumber, cleaning up, office work, running errands, helping out, learning a trade. Young people in the Amish community when they are finished with school at 14, they learn a trade and when they work around the edges of a mill, when they work around the edges of an operation, they learn that business over a period of time. We are not putting them in harm's way. In my view, this is legislation that is needed to be done to preserve the Amish life.”