[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT

  (Mr. ABERCROMBIE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, to correct the record, I believe the 
gentleman from the 18th District of Illinois [Mr. LaHood] who surely is 
no rookie to the process here, perhaps unintentionally mischaracterized 
what has happened in terms of the history of the House. He said, if I 
understood him correctly, that no piece of major legislation has ever 
passed under open rules while the Democrat majority was in power.
  As a member of the Committee on Armed Services and as a member of the 
Committee on Natural Resources, Mr. Speaker, I can tell my colleagues 
that the gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] and the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Miller] conducted every single piece of legislation 
under open rules. Every single hearing, including the budget hearings, 
were open. Every single Member of the then-minority who wanted to offer 
an amendment was able to do so, no matter how long, no matter how 
lengthy. That was the case.
  Also, Mr. Speaker, I think it is a mischaracterization not to 
indicate to the American people and to new Members of the House here 
that time was equally divided always under the chairmanships of the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] and the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Miller].
  Get the facts straight, get the process right, and good legislation 
will follow.


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