Political Quotes

“I know a lot of Members thought that last battle was just because of Texas teachers, firefighters, or police officers; and it is, but simply because Texas has found a way to deal with the government pension offset. Another State, Georgia, has tried and is doing the same thing. We need to reform the government pension offset. A lot of Members have told me, we are going to vote for you, we are going to vote against you, but we need to reform it. This is what this motion to recommit says, to report back. It instructs the Committee on Ways and Means with instructions to report the same back to the House promptly with an amendment addressing the concerns of Federal, State, and local employees about the government pension offset under title II of the Social Security Act. During the last 3 or 4 years, there have been bills introduced in this House that have been bipartisan. We have had at times 218 cosponsors of legislation to reform the government pension offset and have not had a hearing. We have a bill right now, H.R. 594, that has at least 50 Republican cosponsors, and has about 175, and I think it has only been out for a few weeks for cosponsorship, to reform the government pension offset. This is our way to use our rules to be able to say to one of our committees, whether it is my Committee on Energy and Commerce or something else, to say we want to reform the government pension offset. That is why we want to send this bill back.”