Political Quotes

“this rule should be rejected. Let me first say to the chairman of the subcommittee, I appreciate his feelings that are inspired by the Federal monuments, whether it be the F.D.R. Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Washington Monument, or the Lincoln Memorial. Of course, that is all on Federal land, it is owned by the Federal Government, it is run by the Interior Department through the National Park Service. That is not at issue here. What we are talking about here is the people who live within the District of Columbia who buy their own home, who are responsible for maintaining their own property, who elect their own representatives, and would like their representatives to be able to represent them, but would not like the Congress necessarily to be overruling their elected representatives, because they have no democratic right to hold us accountable, and that is the problem with this bill. The legitimately elected representatives of the District of Columbia are being overridden by Members of Congress who will never be held accountable for what they do to the District of Columbia. In terms of the budget, we made a deal back in 1997. Basically, because the District of Columbia has no State to support it, there are certain functions that we agreed we would pick up, and those functions are being shortchanged in this bill to the tune of $31 million. The bill is even $22 million less than last year's level.”