Jim McDermott

Several years ago, Sandy Levin and I put an amendment into the Medicare legislation requiring that everybody who applies be given a set of final directives.

Willie Sutton was once asked, 'Why do you rob banks?' And he said, 'Well, that is where the money is.'

This is not a partisan issue, this is an economic issue that has got to be dealt with.

And if my state got 20 percent of the money I would probably be advocating for more.

We get $.01 back on every $1 we put into this thing.

The HMT shouldn't just sit there while our nation's ports have problems.

We all agree that it needs to be fixed. It is a question of how to fix it.

I also feel like the people who put this hearing together think that all the shipping in the world goes out of the south or the east.

I am deeply grateful for the leadership of Chairman Tiberi and Congressman McDermott, the lead sponsors of ASRA.

There is a little bit of paranoia on this side that if we send a bill to the Senate, sometimes it comes back differently than we had anticipated.

My concern is that should the labor text go beyond the May 10th Agreement it would create, first, unnecessary controversy.

I think it means that more people are taking advantage of this.

You are making the blanket statements.

Making a decision about somebody in Florida on a breathing machine when you haven't seen the patient is malpractice, and it is unethical.

The more important issue here, it seems to me, is what Dr. Roberts says.

It seems to me this hearing has two issues in it, and we can't deal with both of them.

You are trying to draw a general policy.

Supplemental Security Income for Children is an important program for the very vulnerable and neediest of the population.

The role of the Federal Government is to aid the most vulnerable amongst us.

They have declared war on our software industry and you are sitting back.

The Speaker isn't asking the President about all these EPA changes, will the President sign those bills before he passes them out of here.

So we are basically saying to the middle class that have been unemployed for how many weeks, you said? What is the percentage?

So you are talking 22 million people looking for 3 million jobs?

I want you to explain to the committee the term counter-cyclical.

The Republican Party has never believed unemployment insurance was good.