Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago I authored and passed into law the Protect our Kids Act. It became law with the help of former Ways and Means Republican Chair Dave Camp, and it established a commission to eliminate child abuse and neglect fatalities. It is a mark of the progress--or the lack of progress that this year, when that commission came forward with its report, Republicans on our committee would not permit a hearing to accept the modest findings of the commission. And so we have reached tonight. I was offered in the traditional Washington way an opportunity to put my name on this legislation. It has some meritorious provisions that eventually come into effect, but I could not do that and face my constituents in Texas saying that I had done something to address this crisis when I know, in fact, we are not doing what needs to be done to address this crisis. {time} 1945 I advanced one of many alternatives to provide the dollars to deal with this crisis now. That was a proposal not for new taxes, but it was a proposal for tax compliance that would have fully funded the bipartisan agreement from the Senate. But for the ideological commitment to oppose any new resources going to address child abuse, we would have those dollars. We wouldn't be taking the money out of good adoption programs. We wouldn't be delaying a response for 3 years.…”