Political Quotes

“I had planned to be giving a statement on final passage of the ``Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children Protection Act of 1999.'' Unfortunately, I cannot do this, because just as there was last year, there continues to be a hold up on passing this important legislation. We could and should have passed this legislation last year. We could and should pass this legislation today. Last year we missed that opportunity when the Republican majority in both Houses of Congress played partisan games and tried to use this noncontroversial authorization bill as a vehicle to insist on conferencing a much-criticized Republican juvenile justice bill. That procedural gimmick cost us valuable time to get this legislation enacted. The majority was roundly criticized. The Washington Post went so far as to call the Republican Majority's short-circuit conference tactic ``faintly absurd.'' The San Francisco Chronicle used even stronger terms, calling it ``sneaky maneuvering and Byzantine procedural moves.'' The Philadelphia Inquirer's reaction to this tactic was: ``Shame on the House. And shame on the Senate if it approves this bill as is, without debate.'' The New York Times labeled this maneuver a ``stealth assault on juvenile justice.'' By contrast to last year, at least in the Senate, procedural ambushes on juvenile justice legislation have been eschewed and we were given the opportunity last month to have full and fair debate.”