Sylvester Turner: “I want to commend the Chair of our subcommittee, Mr. Clay, for his thoughtful approach to hearings on this matter and…”

“I want to commend the Chair of our subcommittee, Mr. Clay, for his thoughtful approach to hearings on this matter and his leadership in shepherding this bill. I want to thank Chairman Waxman for his efforts in having a very bipartisan discussion in the committee on the bill. He was very welcoming of the input from all of the committee members. Unfortunately, though, here, right in the middle of Open Government Week, we have the irony that this is not the bill that both of these gentlemen worked so diligently on a bipartisan basis for in the committee and subcommittee. It has been amended, unfortunately, as the other side of the aisle decried, in a back room by Democratic leadership in order to make the bill conform to the rules of the House for it to be able to move forward. In the middle of Open Government Week, what does that mean?”