Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. The fact of the matter is that the principle here of making sure that when the Department of Justice goes and extracts settlement payments from defendants in lawsuits brought against them is spent to directly compensate the victims is what this legislation is all about. We want to see them compensated. We also want to make sure that if they are not harmed by this, it doesn't matter who they are. It could be a Republican administration and their favored groups may be a whole different list of organizations that might be sitting there at the door hoping to be able to get some money from the Federal trough by simply applying to a Federal prosecutor or a Federal bureaucrat instead of going through the process that the United States Constitution requires, and that is that Article I of the Constitution says the Congress shall appropriate funds. If the funds are not to go to people directly harmed, they should come to the General Treasury; and the Congress itself, the people's elected representatives in the people's House, should appropriate the funds as they believe is most appropriate. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee). The question was taken; and the Acting Chair announced that the noes appeared to have it.”