[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         SO MUCH FOR OPEN RULES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Well, well, well, well, here we go again, Mr. 
Speaker. The Rules Committee has really become the first line of 
defense for sacred cows. Today we are going to be taking up another 
rule that once again shuts out all sorts of amendments that would knock 
out sacred cows around this place.
  Let us talk about that a little further. When we bring up the 
legislative branch appropriations bills, many of us thought that it was 
very important to have a ban on gifts to staff and Members. Once and 
for all, get the lobbyists' gifts out of here. It taints the whole 
place. People are tired of that. You know what? In this group that 
pledged open rules, we are not allowed to offer that amendment. That 
amendment has been denied. Keep the gifts coming. Boy, is that wrong.
  We also have two major committees that do nothing. They have no 
legislative jurisdiction. There were amendments to try and go after 
these. One has a staff of over $6 million a year; the other is over $3 
million a year. The one that has the over $6 million, the last thing it 
did was a 300-page report defending the right of billionaires to be 
able to give up their U.S. citizenship and move offshore to avoid 
paying taxes. Now, that is not something I feel like funding, thank 
you.
  Not only that, we have two tax committees that have legislative 
jurisdiction. Why do we need this third one that is really nothing but 
a select committee?
  Why am I angry? Well, we did away with all the other select 
committees, ones that dealt with children and families, the one that 
dealt with hunger, and the one that dealt with the elderly. Those are 
gone. Those were people ones, but when you talk about taxes you cannot 
have enough staff up here protecting billionaires. No, no. no, we have 
to preserve them. So we have the Rules Committee denying any amendments 
to take those out, because if those amendments came to the floor, they 
are afraid people might vote for them. Well, so much for open rules.
  I must say this saddens me very, very much. People may remember at 
the end of the 100 days I suppose I misbehaved. I climbed up on the top 
of this dome and I hung out a sign that said ``Sold,'' because I feel I 
am watching this place being sold right under my eyes. It is like sold 
to the highest bidder; sold to the highest gift-giver. We are becoming 
a major, major coin-operated legislative machine.
  There are ways to prevent that. There are ways to prevent that with 
campaign finance reform, with the gift ban, with doing away with 
committees that are just defending the super-rich who have their 
lobbyists up here protecting their special interest in the Tax Code. 
There are ways we can do that. But we cannot do that if we are denied 
the right to even bring these up as real amendments on the floor.
  So far they have not denied my right to come here and at least talk 
about it. I suppose that is next. But we cannot do anything meaningful 
about it because the process has been shut down.
  Now, I think for Americans this is a very serious issue, a very 
serious issue. We know that lobbyists can come in here and turn things 
around. We know they have been here a long time. But we now know we are 
seeing them in a magnitude greater than we have ever seen.
  I was for the gift ban before they moved in with this magnitude. But 
for heaven's sakes, I think before the cynicism just gets so deep that 
we all drown in it we need to get to these basic House cleaning rules.
  We really need to clean all this stuff up. We need to make the Tax 
Code look like it is working for the average person rather than working 
on the average person. We should be focusing much more on issues and 
how they affect children and families. Instead, we did away with the 
one committee that monitored that type of thing.
  We ought to be standing up against hunger. That has been one of the 
great things that this country has done traditionally, is fed the world 
with this great breadbasket we have. No, we did away with that 
committee.
  But, by golly, today we will not even have the chance to save $10 
million and do away with the one that is protecting the billionaires 
over there on the Joint Committee on Taxation and do away with the 
Joint Economic Committee.
  Have you ever seen an economist that has come out with anything that 
is on target yet? Why do we keep buying more and more and more of 
those, especially when we do not look at these other issues that are so 
critical?
  So I rise with great sadness, and I hope many people think, very, 
very long and hard before they vote for this rule, because when you 
vote for this rule, remember, you have totally shut out the ability of 
being able to bring up these kind of amendments once more.
  If you rememeber, last week when we did the defense bill, we had a 
rule that prevented us from bringing the defense number down to what 
the Pentagon wanted. This must stop. Think about that when you vote for 
the rule and vote ``no.''


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