[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 22, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H7319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    NOTICE OF INTENTION TO RAISE QUESTION OF PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(a)(1) of rule IX, I 
hereby notify the House of my intention to offer a resolution as a 
question of the privilege of the House. The form of my resolution is as 
follows:

                           House Resolution--

       Whereas during a meeting of the Committee on Ways and Means 
     on July 18, 2003, for the consideration of the bill H.R. 
     1776, the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means offered 
     an amendment in the nature of a substitute;
       Whereas during the reading of that amendment the chairman 
     of the Ways and Means Committee directed majority staff of 
     the committee to ask the United States Capitol Police to 
     remove minority-party members of the committee from a room of 
     the committee during the meeting, causing the United States 
     Capitol Police thereupon to confront the minority-party 
     members of the committee;
       Whereas pending a unanimous-consent request to dispense 
     with the reading of that amendment the chairman deliberately 
     and improperly refused to recognize a legitimate and timely 
     objection by a member of the committee;
       Now therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of 
     the manner in which Representative Thomas summoned the United 
     States Capitol Police to evict minority-party members of the 
     Committee on Ways and Means from the committee library, as 
     well as the manner in which he conducted the markup of 
     legislation in the Committee on Ways and Means on July 18, 
     2003, and finds that the bill considered at that markup was 
     not validly ordered reported to the House.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the 
floor by a Member other than the majority leader or the minority leader 
as a question of the privileges of the House has immediate precedence 
only at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days after 
the resolution is properly noticed.
  Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the 
gentleman from Michigan will appear in the Record at this point.
  The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution 
constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at 
the time designated for consideration of the resolution.

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