[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 117 (Thursday, August 2, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H5687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REPUBLICAN HOUSE FIDDLES WHILE AMERICA BURNS

  (Ms. BROWN of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the 
Republican do-nothing congress. With all the problems we're having in 
our Nation's transportation and infrastructure, we had a full committee 
meeting today on Amtrak food and beverage service. We could have been 
talking about critical rail issues that we left out of the surface 
transportation bill, like positive train control, the railroad 
rehabilitation improvement financing program, or the freight congestion 
plans. Or we could have been talking about real debt restructuring of 
Amtrak. We could even have gotten crazy and talked about how we were 
going to finance future transportation bills or hold a markup on a 
Water Resource Development Act. And if we really want to talk about 
food, we could have had a hearing on the repeated instances of needles 
being placed in airplane sandwiches. Most importantly, we could have 
had a hearing on the near fatal plane collision that happened just 2 
days ago at Washington National Airport.
  Once again, the Republican House fiddles while America is burning.

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