Political Quotes

“I thank my friend from Oklahoma for yielding me some time. Well, Mr. Speaker, here we are again. Last night, the Rules Committee, under its new chairman, Mr. McGovern, voted to bring four spending bills to the House floor, four bills that have never had a hearing in this body, have never had a markup in this body, and now, under Democratic control of the House, will have no amendments made in order. These bills may sound familiar to my constituents because these are the exact same bills that House Democrats forced votes on last week, only now we will be considering them one by one, rather than in a large package. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Rules Committee over the last 4 years, I can tell you I had the distinct honor of listening to the now- chairman of the Rules Committee spend hours, literally hours, berating those of us in the majority for not allowing amendments on bills. So, Mr. Speaker, you can understand my full expectation as Democrats took control of this body that we would be seeing open rules allowing for vigorous debate on amendments and healthy, open dialogue and transparency on these important pieces of legislation. Unfortunately, that is not the case. If I could, Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote the now-chairman who spoke of his frustrations with the Rules Committee in recent months.…”