Joe Barton: “I remind the body that the Democratic majority took over the House and the Senate in January of this year. They set the…”

“I remind the body that the Democratic majority took over the House and the Senate in January of this year. They set the schedule. They set the agenda. They decide what hearings are held. They decide what bills are marked up. They decide which issues come to the floor of both bodies. Not the Republicans. It is insulting to sit here and be told that somehow when the same party, of which I am not a member, controls the agenda in both legislative bodies of this great Congress that somehow the Republicans are responsible for this late effort to reauthorize SCHIP. I told the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee the day after the election last November, Mr. Dingell of Michigan, that I was looking forward to working with him on SCHIP reauthorization, and while I don't know it as a fact, I am fairly certain that Mr. McCrery had a similar conversation with the distinguished chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Rangel of New York. Now, how much bipartisan cooperation have we had in the House of Representatives? The answer is almost none.”