Political Quotes

“Now the House Republican leadership is hiding behind a procedural technicality as an excuse to avoid debate on the Senate bill. That is nonsense. We all know the Speaker of the House could waive the technicality, called a blue slip and allow the House to have an up-or-down vote on the bipartisan Senate bill at any time. He could do it this afternoon. I have been consistently calling for House action on this legislation since we passed it overwhelmingly 3 months ago. In fact, last month Senator Murkowski and I wrote a bipartisan letter to Speaker Boehner. We asked him to allow an up-or-down vote. Last Thursday five House Republicans followed suit. They called on Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor to take up the Senate-passed bill and resolve the blue slip problem. The Speaker's hands are not tied in this matter. He has to stop choosing to hold up the bill and instead choose to let these efforts to pass the bill go forward. A New York Times editorial earlier this week entitled ``Delay on Domestic Violence'' put it well: Mr. Boehner's leadership could break the logjam--but that, of course, would also require his Republican colleagues to drop their . . . opposition to stronger protections for all victims of abuse. I ask unanimous consent that both letters and the editorial be printed in the Record.…”