[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 687 Laid on Table in House (LTH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 687

           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 16, 2006

 Ms. Pelosi submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the 
                                 table

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas the Republican Leadership has engaged in a continuing pattern of 
        withholding accurate information vital for Members of the House of 
        Representatives to have before voting on legislation, and has inserted 
        numerous controversial provisions into completed conference reports in 
        the dead of night without notifying Democratic Members of the House, the 
        press, or the public;
Whereas on February 1, 2006, the Republican Leadership permitted a vote on House 
        Resolution 653 to concur in a Senate amendment to the conference 
        agreement on Budget Reconciliation, despite the inclusion of inaccurate 
        numbers in provisions that cost the Medicare program an additional $2 
        billion dollars;
Whereas although the Senate Enrolling Clerk had mistakenly changed critical 
        numbers which had a major financial significance for Medicare, and had 
        notified the House of those errors two weeks prior to the vote on 
        February 1, the Republican Leadership deliberately chose to ignore that 
        notification and instead allowed the House to vote on an incorrect 
        version of this legislation;
Whereas the conference agreement on Budget Reconciliation passed the House by 
        the narrowest of margins, 216-214, with every Democrat voting in 
        opposition, and knowledge of this mistake may have influenced the 
        outcome of this vote, which is why the Republican Leadership chose not 
        to pursue the proper course in correcting this legislation;
Whereas as a result of the concealment of these errors in the enrollment of the 
        bill, the law signed by the President of the United States on February 
        8, 2006, is not the same as the text cleared by the House on February 1, 
        2006;
Whereas the effect of these actions raises serious constitutional questions and 
        jeopardizes the legal status of this legislation and The Washington Post 
        has reported: ``Now there are questions about the legality of signing a 
        bill the House technically did not pass'' (The Washington Post, February 
        9, 2006);
Whereas Republican incompetence led to numerous errors in this legislation, and 
        two additional errors in the Senate amendment that was agreed to by 
        House Resolution 653 were found by the Congressional Budget Office in a 
        report dated January 27, 2006, five days before the House voted on the 
        final conference report: ``The (conference report on Budget 
        Reconciliation) contains two apparent errors in legislative language: 
        one in section 8006 regarding direct loans to parents of postsecondary 
        students, and one in section 10002 regarding bankruptcy fees.'' (CBO 
        Report on S. 1932, January 27, 2006);
Whereas in this ongoing pattern of abuse of power, the Republican Leadership on 
        December 17, 2005, deliberately misled Members of the House by inserting 
        into a completed conference report without debate or notification a 
        provision granting liability protection for drug companies from cases 
        involving consumers injured by avian flu vaccine (HR 2863, the Defense 
        Appropriations Conference Report);
Whereas the Republican Leadership inserted this liability vaccine provision at 
        midnight, after conferees signed what they understood to be the final 
        document seven hours earlier, thereby breaking their word and assurances 
        that ``Avian Flu shall be funded at the House level, and will not 
        include either indemnity or compensation provisions.'' (House 
        Appropriations Committee Summary, December 17, 2005, 4:40 p.m.);
Whereas during passage of the Prescription Drug bill in 2003, the Republican 
        Leadership and the committees of jurisdiction ignored the warnings from 
        knowledgeable experts that the true cost of the legislation was 
        potentially hundreds of billions of dollars higher than the official 
        estimate, and intentionally misled Members of the House by withholding 
        information for the sole purpose of winning passage of this extremely 
        controversial bill by a single vote in the middle of the night; and
Whereas the Republican Leadership's culture of corruption and its repeated 
        efforts to thwart the normal legislative process by cutting corners, 
        inserting hand-written provisions into completed conference reports in 
        the dead of night, and rushing through legislation with major errors, 
        forces Members to vote on controversial legislation without thorough 
        time for review and must be denounced: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct shall 
begin an immediate investigation into the abuse of power surrounding 
the inaccuracies in the process and enrollment of the Budget 
Reconciliation legislation cleared for the President on February 1, 
2006.
                                 <all>