Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, Congress has a long history of providing strong, bipartisan conscience and freedom protections consistent with our founding principles and the Constitution. It is about fairness. It is a cornerstone of our Constitution, which is built upon individual rights and liberties. Look no further than the Clinton administration to find evidence of unity when it comes to conscience exemptions. President Clinton built conscience protections into managed care plans for Medicaid and Medicare regarding referrals. In 1977, as part of the Balanced Budget Act, almost identical conscience protections were applied to Medicare Choice Plans. The conference report that included these exemptions was widely supported by Democratic lawmakers like now-Vice President Biden, now-Secretary of State Kerry, and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, to name a few. In 1998 and again in 1999, the Clinton administration took the initiative to add two separate conscience protections to the Federal employees health benefit program. Many of these protections have been renewed annually by Presidents Clinton and Bush and, yes, by President Obama. One of these protections is the Weldon amendment, a longstanding conscience safeguard in appropriations law.…”