Abandoning Partisan Riders to Pass Meaningful Appropriations Bills

WASHINGTON -- This week, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) spoke during the Appropriations Committee markup of the FY15 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill on the need for Congress to pass meaningful appropriation legislation without unnecessary riders.

To watch Rep. Quigley's speech, please click here. A transcript of his full prepared remarks is included below.

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I just want to point out something.

First of all, let's compare activities, this Congress and the previous Congress compared to any others in anybody's lifetime here, if we don't want the President to do anything, let's do something here.

This Congress makes Truman's do-nothing-Congress look positively busy, but also if we compare executive orders, this President is still way behind George W. Bush, way, way behind Bill Clinton, and half as many as President Ronald Reagan, still behind, way behind Jimmy Carter, and still half as many as Richard Nixon. So let's compare facts and figures. This is a President who has only had to act because we don't.

And this is a Congress that has decided the best way to deal with this is almost a bunker mentality of hoping they get past four, then eight years of the Obama administration because you don't like his policies. Well he's the dually elected President of the United States, so if you want to counter something he's done, let's actually pass legislation that has some remote chance of passing both Houses and doesn't have baiting riders in this, that would guarantee a veto, or certainly not bipartisan support. You all know what bipartisan efforts look like, they don't include gotchas, they don't include riders like this that are certain to draw opposition.

In the promise to America, both parties include in their language, and I've read these recently, that they won't include controversial riders, especially ones that deal with issues that aren't financial on must-pass financial legislation. But you just pour it on; you're breaking the promise to America. I get those issues have to be resolved; they're issues our voters are concerned about. But we all know how tough it is to pass these appropriations bills anyway, we know how tough it is to get something done, but you're making it impossible when you put all these riders on here, and then you blame the President because he's trying to do something to deal with the catastrophic issues of our time like climate change.

But you do nothing in a meaningful attempt to pass something on a bipartisan basis except to, in biblical numbers, attempt to repeal the healthcare law. So let's look at the reality of the situation and try to pass meaningful appropriation legislation, and I support this amendment.