Political Quotes

“I appreciate the hard work done by my colleague from North Dakota and his commitment as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee to try to come to a solution in the Cobell settlement. He is absolutely right. We still need to work on some policy issues, as well as some issues in terms of how this will be paid for. He and I both agree we need to settle the Cobell lawsuit. There has been much rhetoric. We both agree we need to settle the Cobell lawsuit. At the President's insistence, and the House and the Senate majorities, they have repeatedly tried to get this bill enacted outside the regular process. This settlement has been inserted into various bills over the past several months that have absolutely nothing to do with American Indian issues. You ask yourself why. Well, perhaps folks wanted to avoid some scrutiny--scrutiny by Congress, by the press, and, most of all, by those who have been most affected, the stakeholders. Two weeks ago, I came to the floor and offered an amendment to legislation that addressed some of the more egregious problems with the settlement. I am talking policy as well as pay-for issues. The majority leader dismissed my amendment, and he called it the 'beat up the lawyers' amendment. Well, he called it that because one of the provisions in the amendment establishes a $50 million cap on presettlement attorneys' fees--$50 million. The settlement says it should be between $50 million and $100 million.”