Joe Barton: “I understand the effort to bring the minimum wage bill back to the floor. Our new majority, for whatever purpose, didn't…”

“I understand the effort to bring the minimum wage bill back to the floor. Our new majority, for whatever purpose, didn't feel like they got a fair shake on that issue in the last several Congresses. So I can understand that. The stem cell bill we voted on yesterday is the identical bill from the last Congress, with the exception of the change in the dates and the reversal of the names from Castle-DeGette to DeGette-Castle. I understand that. I even voted with the new majority on that one. But on this one I am puzzled. We have a program that is working. We have a program that has 75 percent approval of the group we are trying to help, which is higher than most of our approvals in our congressional districts and certainly higher than most of our reelection rates. We have a program that the new majority even admits isn't going to really save any money. We certainly have an issue that there have been no hearings on and there have been no amendments made in order. In fact, we don't even have a Rules Committee yet established.”