Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today we find ourselves once again spending time on the floor of the House taking on an action which will not advance the process of completing the fiscal year 1996 appropriation bills. We are way behind in them. They are way past due. They should have been passed in the first session, and here we are at the beginning of the second session of the 104th Congress and we do not have our appropriation bills done. The Commerce-State-Justice bill was vetoed by the President and received by the House on December 19. It was referred to committee at that time, and today, rather than presenting to the House a bill that could be signed into law and one that ends the shutdown of all the agencies funded in this bill, now in the 19th day, we are debating a veto override. Well, I will vote to sustain the President's veto today, Mr. Speaker. My position is based on the belief that the most constructive thing to be doing now is working out our differences on this bill in a rational way, without the Government shutdown being used by the majority in the House of Representatives as leverage in these policy debates. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I think there is a pretty clear analogy between just good old hostage-taking and the strategy being pursued by the majority.”