[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 58 (Thursday, May 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           PLAY BY THE RULES

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what do the legislation regarding the 
assault-rifle ban and the Clinton tax increase have in common? Two 
things. Both of them failed. Neither had the requisite number of votes 
to pass in the allocated 15-minute voting period.
  But the second thing they have in common is that after the 15 
minutes' allowed time ran out, the majority allowed the vote to stay 
open until enough arms had been twisted, enough pork had been 
dispensed, enough roads had been promised so that two or three more 
votes were eked out and both of these pieces of legislation passed.
  As I went home this weekend, people talked not so much about the 
assault-rifle bill, because I have folks on both sides of the issue, 
but what they said is, ``What in the world is Congress doing letting 
the time run out and then going around twisting arms, taking roll, 
getting people to swap their votes or to go ahead and vote for the 
first time?''
  It is ridiculous. The folks back home understand time periods. They 
vote in different organizations or elected bodies. Let us play by the 
rules, Mr. Speaker. If we cannot lead by example, then what good are we 
to the American people?

                              {time}  1030
                 END THE ETHNIC FIGHTING IN AZERBAIJAN

  (Mr. BILBRAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I introduced a resolution, a 
resolution calling for the Governments of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the 
Nagorno-Karabagh region of Azerbaijan that is occupied by ethnic 
Armenians, to cease fire and to hold their line and to end the 
embargoes on each other.
  I asked Members of this body to join with me in trying to encourage 
the President to enter the fray there in the sense of using his 
influence and showing the American resolve to end the fighting between 
the Armenians and the Azeris that has been going on for years and that 
has cost thousands and thousands of lives.
  I ask my colleagues in the House to join me in sponsoring this 
resolution and moving it forward because this is an area where again, 
like Bosnia, the fighting goes on day after day after day.
  Mose people in the world have forgotten about what is going on in 
Armenia. But the winter is coming again in just a few months, and where 
the embargo from the Azerbaijans has cut off the gas and electricity to 
the area so that people freeze in their beds and suffer frostbite, even 
young children, and they die because of lack of heat. I again encourage 
my colleagues to join with me in cosponsoring this resolution and 
urging a cease-fire in this area of the world.

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