Political Quotes

“Let me thank Mr. Conyers for yielding as I think it is important that we explain to our colleagues what we're doing here. Madam Speaker, this is part of a 7- or 9-hour marathon for committees of jurisdiction to come to the floor to respond to how important it is to, in essence, clog up the government. It sounds pretty, and it sounds attractive to be able to suggest that we have not been exercising due diligence as relates to the regulatory process of the executive branch. My colleague from Tennessee was right: when we cite the Constitution, what we are saying is that the Founding Fathers recognized the importance of three distinct branches: The legislative writes legislation. It has the right to oversight, and those who are part of this body are elected to represent certain perspectives. The executive is elected by all of the people, electing the President of the United States. The third branch, the judiciary, has oversight. So what we have taken to the floor to do is to spend 9 hours in redundancy, talking about what this body should be doing anyhow. We have the responsibility of oversight. We have the ability to question regulations in regular order; but what we will be doing is ignoring the people's business of creating jobs and, frankly, putting ourselves in the role of a clogged toilet, meaning that we are doing nothing, that we are stuffed up.…”