[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 110 (Monday, July 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6723-H6725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   PERMISSION FOR ALL COMMITTEES AND THEIR SUBCOMMITTEES TO SIT FOR 
                 REMAINDER OF WEEK DURING 5-MINUTE RULE

  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged motion.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Pursuant to Clause 2(I) of rule XI, Mr. Armey moves that 
     all committees and subcommittees of the House be permitted to 
     sit for the remainder of the week while the House is meeting 
     in the Committee of the Whole House under the 5-minute rule.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey] is 
recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I will not take the 1 hour.
  Mr. Speaker, let me say at the outset, this is a rather routine 
request. The request is made necessary by our desire to keep floor 
consideration of spending bills as open as possible and accessible to 
all the Members of the body, while at the same time, of course, 
committee work must go on. We feel like this is a necessary 
accommodation, and appreciate the fact that the committees are so 
willing to accommodate our need to maintain a floor schedule and move 
our spending bills.
  I should like to tell the Members of the body that after a very brief 
debate on this motion, we will have a vote, and it will be the last 
vote of the evening.
  Mr. Speaker, with those comments, I yield for 5 minutes for purposes 
of debate only to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank].
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I do take note of the fact 
that the majority has decided we will do no further legislative 
business today of any sort, and that will allow us to leave. But I was 
particularly struck when the majority leader said this is a routine 
request. Indeed, it has become so.
  It has become routine for the Republican Party to ignore the rules it 
so proudly proclaimed at the first day of the session, because one of 
the great reforms that they brought to us, one of the new ways of doing 
business, was the one that was to say that the House will not sit 
simultaneously with the committees.
  You would not, if you were on the Committee on the Judiciary, have an 
important markup on the terrorism bill at the same time a 
constitutional amendment is on the floor. You would not, if you were on 
the Committee on Appropriations, have a full committee markup while a 
bill is on the floor. That was one of the great reforms the Republicans 
were bringing us, and as the gentleman from Texas has honestly said, it 
has now become----
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend until we get some 
order.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. I thank the Speaker
   for his efforts, but it has been my experience that when people do 
not want to hear something, you cannot make them listen.

  The Republicans do not want to hear the reminders of how short-lived 
their promises were about running the House. This is an example. They 
made a big deal about how they were changing its rules so we would not 
have that 

[[Page H 6724]]
conflict between committee business in the House, and it is now routine 
to change it. When that is changed, of course, they make a mockery of 
the rule on proxies.
  We were told you cannot have proxy voting; be there in committee. But 
what do you do when a bill that you are seriously interested in is 
being debated on the floor and the committee on which you are a member 
is simultaneously meeting? Maybe it is a bill on which that committee 
has jurisdiction. How do you avoid missing one or the other?
  So what we have had is, at least in the committees I have seen, a 
very creative contest by the chairs of the committee on how to get 
around the proxy rule. Let's roll the votes. Let's hold the votes. 
Let's reconsider. Let's have some mock votes.
  In area after area, we have seen the rules disregarded. We were told 
we would have a strict limit on the number of subcommittees a member 
can be on. We are. Members are strictly limited on the Republican side 
to the number of subcommittees on which they wish to serve and no more. 
And that need bear no relationship to the basic rule.
  We have been told, in the substantive areas as well, that the 
Republican Party will honor the right of the States. They do. They 
honor the right of the States to make any decision with which the 
Republican Party is in agreement. But where the States may misdecide, 
they will overrule those decisions.
  We are here talking about a very fundamental issue.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I am listening intently to the gentleman and 
having difficulty hearing.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is correct. The House is not 
in order. The House will be in order.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. I appreciate the solicitude and care with 
which the gentleman from Texas has helped me get attention.
  I would appreciate even more, however, some solicitude for the 
ability of the House to legislate in a sensible way. The Committee on 
Appropriations members will be put to the problematic task of sitting 
in full committee while they are in fact having bills on the floor. The 
Committee on the Judiciary has now called a markup on the very 
sensitive subject of abortion, and members of the Committee on the 
Judiciary will be asked to be at that full committee while there is 
legislation on the floor.
  It is a very clear example. Politicians who have been caught being 
inconsistent like to misquote Ralph Waldo Emerson, they leave out a 
couple of adjectives, about how consistency is for the small-minded. I 
want to congratulate my colleagues on the other side. They must feel 
large-minded indeed these days, because there is scarcely a principle 
which they brought forward on the opening day of the session which they 
have not violated, as the gentleman from Texas has said, routinely.
  Routinely we get the proxy cut aside. Routinely the notion of family 
friendly is ignored. Routinely the committees meet while the House is 
in session. Routinely, if you do not like what the States do, States 
rights become something you put back under the rug.
  Mr. Speaker, this is one more example of a failure to live up to 
those professions of concern.
  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. I yield to the gentleman from 
Connecticut.
  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, this is more than just a process issue. The way the 
House has been run has denied Members their ability to adequately 
represent their constituency. Being a Member of Congress puts you in an 
area where you have many responsibilities. One is on the floor. As 
legislation moves through the floor that you are particularly involved 
in, you have a responsibility to be here on the floor. But you are also 
a member of several committees, and under this new process, where there 
is no proxy voting, where sometimes the votes are held until the end of 
the committee, sometimes they are not, this is not simply a change in 
process. It is actually again stacking the deck against Members.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I do want to say I appreciate the kind remarks of the 
distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank] and also want to 
express my appreciation for the kindness of the gentleman from 
Connecticut as well. But I do feel compelled, which is a rare 
opportunity for anybody in this body, to correct the gentleman from 
Massachusetts.

                              {time}  2015

  The quote that the gentleman struggled for is, in fact, ``a foolish 
consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, charlatans and divines,'' 
if I can get that corrected.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the 
previous question on the motion.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walker). The question is on the motion.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the noes appeared to have it.


                             Recorded Vote

  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
  A recorded vote was ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 234, 
noes 176, not voting 24, as follows:
                             [Roll No. 477]

                               AYES--234

     Allard
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blute
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bunn
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clinger
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins (GA)
     Combest
     Cooley
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cremeans
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Davis
     Deal
     DeLay
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dornan
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Fields (TX)
     Flanagan
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Funderburk
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gilchrest
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Gutknecht
     Hall (TX)
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Hoke
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Jacobs
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Laughlin
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Linder
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Longley
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     Martini
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Meyers
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Molinari
     Montgomery
     Moorhead
     Morella
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Packard
     Parker
     Paxon
     Petri
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Quillen
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Regula
     Riggs
     Roberts
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roth
     Roukema
     Royce
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer
     Schiff
     Seastrand
     Sensenbrenner
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shuster
     Sisisky
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stockman
     Stump
     Talent
     Tate
     Tauzin
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Torkildsen
     Upton
     Vucanovich
     Waldholtz
     Walker
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Zeliff
     Zimmer

                               NOES--176

     Ackerman
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Beilenson
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Bevill
     Bishop
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brewster
     Browder
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Bryant (TX)
     Cardin
     Chapman
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Danner
     de la Garza
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Doyle
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Fields (LA)
     Filner
     Flake
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Geren
     Gibbons
     Gonzalez

[[Page H 6725]]

     Gordon
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hamilton
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Holden
     Hoyer
     Jackson-Lee
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnston
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kleczka
     Klink
     LaFalce
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lincoln
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy
     McDermott
     McHale
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Menendez
     Miller (CA)
     Mineta
     Minge
     Mink
     Mollohan
     Moran
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pastor
     Payne (NJ)
     Payne (VA)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Poshard
     Rangel
     Reed
     Richardson
     Rivers
     Roemer
     Rose
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanders
     Sawyer
     Schroeder
     Schumer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Skaggs
     Slaughter
     Spratt
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Taylor (MS)
     Tejeda
     Thompson
     Thornton
     Thurman
     Torres
     Torricelli
     Traficant
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Volkmer
     Ward
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Wilson
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wyden
     Wynn

                             NOT VOTING--24

     Abercrombie
     Becerra
     Brown (CA)
     Dooley
     Foglietta
     Frost
     Gillmor
     Hastert
     Hunter
     Jefferson
     Lantos
     Mfume
     Moakley
     Oxley
     Pryce
     Reynolds
     Smith (MI)
     Stark
     Studds
     Towns
     Tucker
     Waxman
     Williams
     Yates

                             {time}   2033

  So the motion was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  

                          ____________________