Date: 2006-04-04
Speaker: STENY HOYER (democrat)
Chamber: H

and also our chair and vice chair of our caucus. I think it is important for us to come to the floor once again in this 30something Working Group to talk about the issues that are facing America and how the Republican majority is falling short of its responsibility. Mr. Speaker. to fulfill not only the hopes. but aspirations of Americans as we come to Washington. D.C. to represent them in a way that we should. need it be education. health care. what have you. We shave so much to share. Mr. Speaker. tonight. 50 minutes will not even give us justice for what we have to share. I must say that the 30something Working Group is very. very. very excited and enthusiastic for being here tonight to hopefully drive home the point even better than we have done before of why it is important that we need a new Congress here in Washington. D.C. that is going to represent the American people. And we are not just talking about Democrats. We are not just talking about Independents. We are not just talking about Republicans. We are talking about the American people. We want to move in a comprehensive way. making sure that we can have true bipartisanship in this chamber. I think we have expressed that in the past. I think that we have shown that in the past when we were in the majority. and it is nothing like thirdparty validators that we have here tonight. Mr. Speaker. that even drives home the point even better. We have talked in the past about issues that are facing the American people and this Congress. We talked about the K Street Project back when no one really wanted to talk about the K Street Project. which is a project to encourage lobbyists here in Washington. D.C. to contribute to one side. to the Republican Party to help not only gain the majority. but to also be apart of supporting Republican candidates. to have access to this House. We talked about that. We got some dirty looks from some Members of the majority side about exposing that. And then later. after Abramoff pleading guilty without a trial. without a jury selection or anything. the Republican majority said we will no longer carry out that project because it was wrong. It was the 30something Working Group that moved boldly in that direction to expose that practice here in Washington. D.C. Even when it comes down to our troops as it relates to equipment and supplies that they needed. even though you have some folks on the majority side that said we did it in a way that the American people should be proud of it was on this side of the aisle that we did so. So it is not all about who made it to the front of -the classroom first. Mr. Speaker. It is about those of us that understand the responsibility of governance. those of us that understand the responsibility of leadership and those of us that cherish the opportunity to be here as part of this elected House of Representatives. Like I said. Mr. Speaker. it is so much to share tonight. there is not enough time to share it. But I would like to yield to some of my colleagues at this time so that we can start the kind of discourse that is going to head us in the right direction here in Washington. and hopefully the American people will start looking through some of the 30second ads. looking through some of the. targeted media campaigns that are out there. When I say marketing campaigns. Mr. DELAHUNT. and