Political Quotes

“We have gotten used to singing duets together. It is good to be with you. Thanks to each of you for your service. I am Derek Kilmer. I represent the west coast of Washington State, a little north of Jaime. About every 20 or 30 years or so, Congress realizes things aren't working the way they ought to, and they create a committee to look at potential reforms. The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress is the most recent iteration of that. The title of the committee makes it sound like we are the IT help desk, but we have been nicknamed the ``fix Congress committee,'' which usually either causes people to giggle or offer to pray for us. Pretty much under the radar for the last 4 years, our committee has been focused on a single mission, which is to make Congress work better for the American people. I served as chair. Tom Graves was the vice chair in the last Congress and William Timmons in this Congress. It has been a truly bipartisan effort. I say that in part because the rule that established our committee set it up with six Democrats and six Republicans and a requirement that a two-thirds vote was required to pass any recommendations. As of last month, our committee very quietly passed more than 200 recommendations, all focused on making Congress work better. Some of them are on pretty wonky things, issues like how we make sure that Congress is a more modern institution that uses technology better.…”