Gerry Connolly

I am certainly gratified for the clarification of my friend. It now gives me great pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), my good friend and a senior member of the Oversight and Government Reform…

I thank my friend because I am going to run out of time. I must say to my friend, my prepared remarks were designed to support this bill.

I exhort the chairman, it was our understanding that the Engel-Connolly bill on sanctions against countries that interfere in our elections was going to be in the markup scheduled today.

The more efficient we can get, the better off we are going to be from a fiscal point of view and the discipline of efficiency.

If we could ever get it close to zero and dedicated just, you know, the savings to deficit reduction, it would be a good down payment.

I certainly agree with my friend Ms. Foxx that the goal should be to strive to move to zero in terms of improper payments.

I certainly add my voice to that of my colleagues in support of this important legislation. Syria is a mess. It does affect all of us, as Mr. Kinzinger said, whether we like it or not. It is destabilizing the entire region. I believe this…

I am happy to yield 5\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly), my good friend.

May I inquire of the Speaker how much time is left on this side? The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rogers of Kentucky). The gentleman from Virginia has 11\1/2\ minutes remaining.

My experience is the opposite. The Federal workforce is a dedicated group of workers.

We have got a long way to go in streamlining hiring process, making it easier, less bureaucratic, less paper-dominated.

There are all kinds of miscarriages of justice that would occur in the absence of high--the current evidentiary standards for allegations of misconduct.

There is still a lot of discrimination, favoritism, nepotism, outright outrageous discriminatory behavior...

I salute Mr. Meadows for that effort.

I want to compliment the chairman. I hope this doesn't hurt him, but he has gone way beyond ideology on Federal employee issues.

Senator Sanders is a champion of workers' rights, and he is a nationally renowned expert on these matters.

It is a complicated picture, and some of the protections... are there for a reason.

Mr. Madison, for example, took on a lot of unpopular religious causes to fight for the religious freedom of Anabaptists.

I'm a Roman Catholic. I studied for the priesthood too, Mr. Hice, and my church is protected by this amendment.

I also come from Massachusetts where John Adams enshrined that concept into the first Constitution of Massachusetts.

I'm sure the title of this hearing, Examining a Church's Right to Free Speech, didn't mean to exclude my Hindu colleague next to me or my Jewish colleague in front of me, Mr. Raskin, I'm sure it was just an oversight, because we're not…

The Department of Education may very well be in breach of law, and we are going to explore that.

The breach at the Department of Education is something we have been warning about on this committee for quite some time.

I want to thank my friend Bobby Scott for his leadership. This is an incredible service, not only to my Commonwealth of Virginia and his, but, frankly, to all Americans. This isn't just an issue for African Americans or some subgroup. All…

When will the DATA Act be fully online and implemented?