Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, let me first say to the gentleman from Michigan, nothing is being railroaded. As the gentleman has quite accurately pointed out, for something to pass on suspension, it requires a two-thirds vote. If it were brought up under a rule it would only take a majority vote, so we are not trying to put anything over on anybody. Frankly, it surprised me that the gentleman came down here to oppose it. We had no idea that the gentleman was opposed to the legislation at this point. The gentleman never indicated any reservations about the bill. If he had done so, we would have wanted to include him in any negotiations that we had, because we were working very diligently to pull together the support necessary to pass this important legislation. But the gentleman is entirely inaccurate when he says there is no opportunity for amendment. The bill itself at the desk is a manager's amendment taken from suggestions made by those who had concerns in the Committee on the Judiciary meeting, and we did not reach agreement with everybody. It is hard to reach agreement with everybody. But we reached agreement with some of those who raised reservations, and we changed the bill accordingly. Mr. Speaker, I am sorry that the gentleman has the opposition. I would love to have sat down with him ahead of time and attempted to work those matters out, if it were possible.”