Political Quotes

“I thank my friend and colleague from Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I want to echo what the distinguished minority whip had to say. These bills were rushed to the floor. They've been long in the planning on the Republican side of the aisle. They passed out of our committee on a party-line vote. Hearings were not held. And little niceties like the fact that there wasn't a law enforcement exemption on this particular bill get overlooked in drafting when you rush to the floor like this. But of course the purpose of these bills is not really to protect American citizens, though we could have done that. Because I would say to my friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), I'm deeply sympathetic to the plight he found himself in. I think we probably could have worked out a bipartisan set of proposals today that would have protected people like Mr. Kelly, now a Member of Congress and my friend from Pennsylvania. What he described is not acceptable and we do need to protect people from it, but that's not the purpose of these bills today. The purpose of these bills is cynically political. It is to allow one side of the aisle, the majority, to go home and talk about an abusive government that they're standing up to. And in that narrative, you do terrible damage to the courageous men and women, the diligent men and women who serve our constituents, known as Federal employees.…”