WASHINGTON - House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer criticized the Republican-controlled Congress on Saturday for "surrendering to its own intransigence and admitting that it cannot complete the work the people sent us here to do."
"The 108th Congress has failed, and the American people know that we can, and must, do better," the Maryland congressman said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
Hoyer, his party's No. 2 leader in the House, said Republicans "hardly broke a sweat" this year and "worked fewer hours than any single session of Congress since 1948."
He criticized Republican leaders for failure to enact intelligence reform, a budget, an energy plan "despite record high gas prices" and a transportation bill.
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In a reference to Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, he said Democrats "will not elect leaders who spend more time fending off ethics charges than they do tending to the people's business."
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