Political Quotes

“I would like to bring the gentleman back to a conversation that we had last week regarding the SCHIP bill. Because, frankly, Madam Speaker, I'm a little bit concerned that the Democrat majority is not fulfilling President-elect Obama's calls for bipartisanship. Because I would say to the gentleman, last week you told the House that you were working towards having the SCHIP bill available to us for a full 48 hours before bringing it to the floor; and as the gentleman knows, that did not happen. And I know the American people are not concerned about the process here in this House, but I do know that the public wants their Congress to function openly. This truly is about bipartisanship and transparency, and I believe that the American people deserve both. And as we discussed, Madam Speaker, last week, there are 55 new Members of this House. Those 55 new Members had less than 24 hours to review a 285-page bill that spent $72 billion in American taxpayer dollars, and none of these Members were even allowed to offer an amendment. So I would like to ask the majority leader if he would commit to allowing at least 48 hours for Members and the American public to review bills prior to a vote in the House.”