Foundation of the Federal Bar Association Charter Amendments Act of 2019

Floor Speech

I rise today in support of H.R. 1663, the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association Charter Amendments Act of 2019. I appreciate the gentleman and his fine laying out of what the bill actually does. I thank him and Congressman Steve Chabot for their work on this legislation and for their support of the Federal Bar Association.

The gentleman from Georgia is not prepared to close because, frankly, the gentleman from Ohio is on his way. I will do the best I can here.

Mr. Speaker, interesting discussion today. I could go on. I think it is interesting. Again, sometimes we get lost in the formalities and everything else of what is going on here. But this discussion about moving offices outside the District and moving them around is an issue and discussion that should be had.

I think there are some that are very vital to being here in the District or, as in the case of this organization, in Arlington, just outside the District. But then there are also some very real concerns on how we can discuss that.

I think one of the things that we have lost, and I will discuss here since we are in this mode, is this discussion of having a real, honest, back-and-forth discussion on legislation and pieces of legislation or, honestly, where things need to be.

Mr. Speaker, I think this is something that is vitally missing, probably from both sides of the aisle, especially this year, as we look at the context of bills and stuff that have gone on without the benefit of true bipartisan discussion. I can think of the arbitration bill that was just recently on the floor, in which there were very real concerns that Republicans had, very real concerns the Democrats had.

Unfortunately, when I actually mentioned to the chairman that I think we could have gotten a bill that would have had 375, 400 votes on the floor for ``yes,'' my chairman was amazed. Do you think we really could have? And I said, yes, if we had engaged in dialogue to fix what was wrong and not try to do a whole rewrite on something that could get made into law.

I think these are the kind of discussions that are very good. I think these are the kind of discussions that make it.

I appreciate so much the gentlewoman taking up for the District of Columbia. I think that is exactly why we come here. I come here from the perspective of northeast Georgia. The gentleman comes from Maryland. The gentlewoman comes from the District right here.

Members from all over the body bring their ideas and their thoughts of their constituents to the floor, especially in markups and especially in bills, in which not everything, at the end of the day, is from a Republican or Democratic standpoint.

At the end of day, as someone who has authored many pieces of legislation, just as the gentleman has as well, the big things get done when we work together. The big things--I mean, criminal justice reform was when Hakeem Jeffries and I bridged a large gap in a divide, even an unruly Senate, to actually pass something that really worked.

We had the Music Modernization Act, which, again, took 6 years to discuss and 6 years to be a part of. When you had Members of the bodies that ended up being a part of this not even willing to sit down and talk to each other at the beginning of this process and, at the end of the day, having a major accomplishment and a major bill that was passed because of bipartisanship, I think that it gave on both sides.

I appreciate the gentlewoman bringing those things up. I think it is an interesting correlation between the Federal Bar Association and the excellent work that they do. I have no problem with the work that they do.

I will reserve, if the gentleman would like to share and respond on what we just talked about.

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have one more speaker and I will yield him the balance of my time, so when he yields back, I will close.

I appreciate that now that the airplane has circled enough and we have run out of enough fuel, we are now on to the next topic, and I appreciate the gentleman discussing that.

I yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).
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