the President should be a vocal advocate for human rights.

the President has a bully pulpit; it is unique. Human rights is a very important part of U.S. policy and the President has a particularly, a unique role in advocacy with respect to human.

Every time that we do not speak out on the issue, it green lights other abusers to continue to act with impunity.

The President has a bully pulpit; it is unique. Human rights is a very important part of U.S. policy.

It just puts local governments, who have the primary burden of delivery of services, in a straitjacket.

I don't think the authors... ever ran a school district.

I am very proud of that, and I'm very proud of the collaboration.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, you could partner with your local governments that have that capability technologically and save a lot of time, trouble, and money.

I think he makes the argument for why we need to have a commission that tees up those very issues.

I could not get colleagues to focus on it. Like, we had to provide some relief here.

To be on the receiving end of unfunded mandates, whether they be Federal or state--I was a local government guy--is not a pleasant experience.

I was stunned by the statement, and it told us a lot about need for improvement in intergovernmental relations.

I don't think any of them ever ran a school district. And some of the consequences that flowed from that legislation on schools and on school districts were quite consequential.

The Dillon rule in a modern, 21st-century environment, frankly, does not make sense.

I mean, if there's a place where we have the intersection between the Federal Government and state and local governments, it's the Census.

My hope is we will get this bill on a bipartisan basis so that we can get back to work and expand the dialog.

Let's keep to a minimum the intrusive regulation that just makes things harder to manage, harder to govern, and without really merit.

if you think the Federal Government has never been involved in school construction, I'll be glad to take you to Mount Vernon High School

To me, that's almost self-evident because--to this enormous question--but we haven't had a seat at the table.

It is time to address that kind of thing.

That's what federalism is all about, and we need to give more credit and credibility to that concept.

I had a roundtable yesterday, and it became so clear to me how the Census Bureau is completely dependent on the networks that exist in local governments.

My friend, Rob Bishop, after two years of looking at this, hardly a liberal Democrat, came to the same conclusion: We've got to have a mechanism.

I think we have to discuss in America the Dillon rule versus home rule.

Finally, Madam Speaker, maybe the worst of all, to bemoan the change yesterday to allow the Speaker to have her words considered and to allow her back on the floor. Why? Because we don't care about rules? No. Because we care about the…