Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 672, and I yield myself 5 minutes. Supporters of the bill once told us that this would save $14 million each year. I'm not sure how they came up with that number. What we do know is that when Ranking Member Brady asked the FEC if they could handle the responsibilities of EAC, this is what they said: Sure, if you give us more money. So this bill would take money from an agency they don't like and give it to an agency that no one likes. It will take money from an agency that has met many challenges and has improved its operations in the past few years, and it will give it to one on the opposite path, one that has become only more dysfunctional in recent years. But H.R. 672 doesn't move all of EAC's functions to the FEC. Some of the best ones simply go away. So let's say that H.R. 672 will save the Federal Government $6.6 million a year. That's great. Unless you happen to live in a State. This is just another example of shifting the costs to the States. Well, we lose the efficiencies of having a central clearinghouse for information, so maybe this isn't just cost shifting but cost increasing, because no matter what we do, our States have to run elections every year, often twice a year. The EAC doesn't run elections. That's not its job. It assists the State and local election officials so that they can run elections better and for less.…”