Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, the bill before us today is not a bad piece of legislation. Mr. Ehlers, for example, of Michigan is one of the Republican cosponsors of it. Mr. Welch of Vermont has sought assistance across the aisle. Mr. Markey, Mr. Waxman, the full committee and subcommittee chairmen, have taken a number of amendments in subcommittee and full committee and I think generally worked in good faith. Having said that, here we go again, Madam Chair. It's Thursday. This is the only bill this week that we are going to have a rule on. This is an authorization bill, as Chairman Waxman just said, but it authorizes $6.6 billion to be spent over a 2-year period, and makes no attempt to find a way to pay for it. So it's another new program with all the right feel-good intentions, but it's all hat and no cattle as we would say down in Texas. In committee, Chairman Waxman, to his credit, did say that the bill should be paid for. He did encourage Congressman Latta of Ohio, who offered a pay-for amendment that the bill would be paid for, if he would withdraw it he would work with him, and yesterday we did have some discussions with the chairman on how to pay for it. Those discussions did not provide a satisfactory conclusion to either side, so Mr. Latta went to the Rules Committee and asked that his amendment be made in order. Eight amendments were made in order, but his amendment was not, Madam Chair.…”