Political Quotes

“I begin by saluting my colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan), and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), for their tremendous patience. Because as we are seeing with this amendment, we have been offered everything but the kitchen sink as an amendment to this bill. This really has nothing to do with the underlying issue of campaign finance reform. It does have to do with a movement concerning proficiency in English, which I agree is an important part of being an American. But I also know that there are many people that are some of our strongest and best Americans whose first language is, in my community, Spanish or Vietnamese. They are some of our hardest working citizens. They pay taxes, they contribute to our community, and they deserve a right to participate in the electoral process. As I review the specifics of this amendment that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Barr) is offering, it allows the ballots to be bilingual, which they certainly should be. It is the voting materials that he says cannot be in another language. My goodness, in our State, we provide instructions, we use bilingual instructions to teach people how to get a driver's license. Why can we not provide the same manner of instruction for those who want to exercise their franchise as Americans?”