John Culberson: “Before I begin--and I will be very brief--I want to make sure to thank the majority staff who have worked so hard on…”

“Before I begin--and I will be very brief--I want to make sure to thank the majority staff who have worked so hard on this bill. I want to thank our chief clerk, John Martens; Leslie Albright; Jeff Ashford; Taylor Kelly; Colin Samples; and Aschley Schiller for their tireless work drafting this bill, along with Bob Bonner and Matt Smith on the minority's staff and Corey Inglee and Megan Olmstead in my personal office. And a personal thank you to my good friend, the Congressman from Philadelphia, who has done such a great job. We have worked together arm in arm on this bill. Starting at about 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon, we have worked through over 80 amendments. All the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley) would have had to do was to show up here. During the course of that debate, any Member could have offered an amendment, and that is one of the great things about this process. I want to thank our majority leader and our Speaker, Mr. Boehner, for opening up the legislative process. Unlike in the past, any Member of this Congress could stand up and represent their 700,000 constituents. You could take a Big Chief notepad and a pencil and just write out an amendment and walk right down there and give it to the Clerk. All the gentlewoman from California had to do was just write the amendment up and present it to the Clerk. Why, we would have even accepted it. But instead, she offers it up here today as a procedural trick to confuse and confound.…”