Political Quotes

“the last action on the rule that has resulted in this time for the Republican leadership to kind of regroup is very important, because that rule was defeated in a bipartisan vote, and there is no fundamentally more important reason to defeat that rule than the fact that that rule eliminated the need for funding for the Federal Election Commission. Mr. Speaker, last February, the FEC asked for a supplemental appropriation of $1.7 million needed to address the campaign abuses from the 1996 campaign, which the Committee on Appropriations granted. Up until last night, there was every indication that the appropriation would go forward. But last night, the Committee on Rules unilaterally, and without warning, left the public hearing and behind closed doors deleted the appropriation for the bill. They did this even after the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney], the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays] and myself asked that the specific appropriation be included and that certain restrictions be removed. The FEC funding was the only funding deleted, and it was no accident. This, after all, was the first money that Congress would have appropriated to allow investigations into the congressional campaign abuses to go forward. Make no mistake. What we have here is a total abuse of process, a total violation of fundamental fairness. In fact, today we now have the majority really committing a double abuse.…”