Getting something through the House is only half the battle. So you put things in the House bill that you know will be taken out in conference and you leave things out of the House bill that will be in the Senate bill. It's like a chess game.
The conference committee, that wonderful wrestling ring of compromise where House and Senate versions of bill are wrenched into law ...
If you're holding a grudge against somebody over the battle you just went through, you might be working with them on the next bill.
I haven't had a chance to talk, but I'm confident we'll get a bill that I can live with if we don't.
One of the things I give Nancy Pelosi a lot of credit for is that she's able to get things passed and hold her members together because she shows us that she's doing everything possible to get our views into these bills.
If you get your provision in the first draft of a bill, then the opposition has to get it out to defeat you.
You gotta get into some confrontations sometimes to get the right result on the floor, but I think the bulk of our membership wants us to work out problems before a bill comes to the floor.
The whip's office is almost more educational - educating members on the bill itself, listening to members ahead of time.
