[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 138 (Tuesday, December 7, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H10993-H10994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WAIVING A REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO
CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS REPORTED FROM THE COMMITTEE ON
RULES
Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 868 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 868
Resolved, That the requirement of clause 6(a) of rule XIII
for a two-thirds vote to consider a report from the Committee
on Rules on the same day it is presented to the House is
waived with respect to any resolution reported on the
legislative day of December 7, 2004, providing for
consideration or disposition of a conference report to
accompany the bill (S. 2845) to reform the intelligence
community and the intelligence and intelligence-related
activities of the United States Government, and for other
purposes.
{time} 1500
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Linder) is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter),
pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During
consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose
of debate only.
Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 868 is a rule that waives clause 6(a) of rule
XIII with respect to the same day consideration against certain
resolutions reported from the Committee on Rules. Specifically, this
rule waives a requirement for a two-thirds majority vote by the House
to consider a rule on the same day that it has been reported by the
Committee on Rules.
This rule's waiver applies to any special rule reported on the
legislative day of December 7, 2004, providing for the consideration or
disposition of a conference report to accompany the bill S. 2845 to
reform the intelligence community and the intelligence and
intelligence-related activities of the U.S. Government and for other
purposes.
I urge my colleagues in the House to join me in approving H. Res.
868. We are close to completing the 108th Congress, and the passage of
this rule will help expedite the consideration of sweeping reform of
our security and intelligence operations to keep America safe.
Representatives from multiple committees have been working tirelessly
to negotiate the best possible legislation, and they have completed
their work on this legislation today. By approving this same-day rule,
the House will ensure that we can move forward expeditiously in making
the substantive changes that will inevitably help better protect the
citizens of this country.
Mr. Speaker, this same-day waiver rule provides for prompt
consideration of important legislation before the adjournment of this
Congress. The Committee on Rules approved this rule late yesterday
afternoon. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting its passage.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, we are here to consider a package of
reforms that, despite garnering broad bipartisan support throughout the
Nation, was not cleared for the floor until today.
The House received this blueprint for making America safer in the
form of the September 11 report in July, well over 5 months ago; and
upon release of the report, and ever since, the commissioners have been
appealing to the House to respond to its recommendations with a great
sense of urgency.
To its credit, throughout the summer recess the House undertook an
ambitious schedule of hearings on the 9/11 report; and as a member of
the Select Committee on Homeland Security, I heard the impassioned
testimony from both Governor Kean and Representative Hamilton as they
presented a compelling case for why structural reforms were essential
to enhancing the security of the American people from the threat of
terrorism.
At the time, I believed we would get this intelligence reform package
cleared by both Houses of Congress well before the third anniversary of
the 9/11 attacks; but as we all know, despite broad bipartisan support
in both bodies, it simply did not happen. Instead, it was left in sort
of suspended animation for months while the House leadership secured
support from the majority of the majority in the House.
Mr. Speaker, in my 18 years in the House of Representatives, I have
never heard of such a standard. Whether it is the product of an
arrogant belief that the views of the minority in the House are now
somehow subordinate or it is the manifestation of leadership drunk with
power, I truly do not know; but if this is any indication of how the
House leadership intends to do business in the 109th Congress, be
warned that the American people will not like it.
It is not just the red States that are populated with patriotic,
moral Americans who serve courageously in our Armed Forces or as first
responders. Patriotic, moral Americans live in blue States and every
State of this Union. We are all Americans. We are all equal under the
law, and we all have an important role to play in the life of this
Nation.
I would also caution the majority to bear in mind the words of the
18th century philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau who said, ``It is
unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be
organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.'' I think
we saw that well-demonstrated today.
Satisfied that it has secured support from a majority of the
majority, the House leadership is now rushing this bill to the floor,
denying Members adequate time to review each and every critical
provision.
Have we learned nothing from the debacle surrounding the omnibus
spending bill? The privacy rights of millions of American taxpayers
were put at risk by one small provision inserted into that 3,000-page
bill. Under the regular order of the House, we should have had 3 days
to review the report; but with a martial-law rule, we do not even get
one.
In the 108th Congress, the Committee on Rules has reported 29 martial
rules and 17 in the second session alone. At the rate we are going, the
regular order of business is becoming the irregular order of business.
[[Page H10994]]
Mr. Speaker, the majority has delayed this bill long enough. I would
have preferred this bill, so crucial to defending our country, be
considered by unanimous consent; but I know there are many people who
would be happy if this legislation never saw the light of day.
Before I close, I want to reiterate my support for the intelligence
reform package. Despite my opposition to the way it has come to the
floor, I intend fully to vote for it later.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of our time.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member on the
Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the House voted to repeal a
controversial provision in the omnibus appropriations bill that no
Member knew was in the bill when the bill was filed. Yet today, having
learned little, the House will rush to vote on the intelligence bill
about which Members know probably just as little, and they will do so
without having the language available.
I would like to be able to vote for this bill because it will
probably improve the sharing of intelligence, and there are a number of
other good provisions in it. But Mr. Speaker, we need to recognize that
there have been two intelligence failures in the last 5 years. First
was the failure to prevent the 9/11 attack. Second was the use of
faulty intelligence to suck us into a dumb war in Iraq. The new layer
of bureaucracy created by this bill may or may not help us on the first
front, but it is likely to make it harder to correct the second. That
is why I am going to vote against the bill and against this motion to
speed up its consideration.
One of the bill's most glaring shortcomings is that it does not
guarantee that dissenting or alternative views will ever be clearly
stated to the President. That was a major problem in the decision to go
to war in Iraq. To correct that problem, Senator Roberts included a
provision in the Senate bill establishing an office and a process to
provide these alternative points of view at every stage. That provision
is, sadly, hugely watered down now in this bill. The bill simply leaves
it up to the National Intelligence Director to decide how different
points of view are factored into decisions. That is a terribly weak
substitute.
Second, in emerging domestic and foreign surveillance operations, the
bill does not sufficiently protect ordinary Americans from the mistakes
of Big Government. The bill does contain a Presidential board to look
at government-wide privacy issues, but that will do little to protect
innocent Americans or to address specific grievances that may arise.
That will come back to haunt us, just as certain aspects of the PATRIOT
Act have.
Finally, the bill purports to increase the number of border and
Customs agents; but in fact, the bill does nothing of the kind. That
language is meaningless without the dollars to back it up, and this
House has rejected providing those dollars, (ill-advisedly so in my
view they voted that way;) the House has rejected providing those
dollars four times in the past year, and this bill does absolutely
nothing to change that. On that score, this bill is simply an empty
institutional press release.
When this bill is corrected on those three fronts, and on others, I
will be happy to vote for it, but not until.
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I
move the previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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