Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to amendment 35, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. The amendment would establish an online public directory of political appointees at the Office of Personnel Management. I want to thank Ranking Member Rogers for his extraordinary leadership throughout this process. I want to echo his words from his opening testimony on Monday before the House Rules Committee where he urged the committee to ``keep out superfluous amendments that are not related to the Department of Defense.'' Unfortunately, this advice fell upon deaf ears with regard to this particular amendment. This politically charged amendment is wholly outside HASC's jurisdiction. It does not belong in the NDAA. This lies solely within the jurisdiction of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and the reasoning as to why we are debating this as a measure in the NDAA is absolutely beyond me. The Plum Book is already available online, and as of 2012 has already been published in a more searchable and accessible format. Given that the Plum Book is already accessible online in two separate locations, there is no justification whatsoever for the measure's authorization for $7 million in appropriated taxpayer money to build this new online database.…”