[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 148 (Tuesday, October 2, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11137-H11143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON RULES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I think this is the first time in the 110th
Congress that I have stood here taking out a 1-hour Special Order, and
I don't do this very lightly and obviously I don't do it terribly
often. But, Mr. Speaker, I am here to address an issue that, frankly,
doesn't get a great deal of attention either in this House or among the
American people.
Last week my very distinguished colleagues, with whom I am pleased to
serve on the House Rules Committee on the minority side, the gentleman
from Miami, FL, Lincoln Diaz-Balart; the gentleman from Pasco, WA, Doc
Hastings; and the gentleman from Dallas, TX, Pete Sessions; and I came
together. And we, after a great deal of research, have compiled a
report and unveiled this.
This report, Mr. Speaker, is entitled ``Out of Order,'' and I would
commend it to all of my colleagues. It is relatively short, about 10 or
11 pages, has got a number of graphs, and it is available for any one
of our colleagues who would like to see this report. You can get it on
the Web right now if you'd like, Mr. Speaker, at rules-
republicans.house.gov. And I will repeat that again. It's rules-
republicans.house.gov.
And what we are going to do, Mr. Speaker, over the next hour is we
are going to hear about this report, and a number of our very
distinguished colleagues who have, for lack of a better term, been
victimized by the actions of this Rules Committee are going to share
with our colleagues some of the experiences that they have had.
Now, one might say that we are here whining or complaining about our
mistreatment. Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We are here because the
American people, Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike, were
promised something much different than what they have gotten. We are
not here to whine. We are not here to complain. We are here to fight on
behalf of the American people's right to be heard, the right to ensure
that our deliberative democracy is, in fact, that; that our process of
representative democracy is able to flourish. And, tragically, if one
looks at this report, over the last 9 months we have found that that
has not, in fact, been the case.
Now, many might argue these guys want to just talk about process. Mr.
Speaker, I say to my colleagues process is substance. It has been
through this horrendous process that we have seen, in the farm bill, a
massive tax increase that was written into place by the Rules
Committee. We have found, through this Rules Committee, that they have
prevented us from having the opportunity to bring gasoline prices down,
and we all know that gasoline prices are incredibly high. How did they
do that? By denying an opportunity for us to have an amendment that
would have done what virtually everyone says is essential in our quest
to reduce gasoline prices, and that is to increase refinery capacity.
Unfortunately, the permitting process is so onerous that it has been
literally decades since we have seen a new oil refinery put online.
What happened? Right upstairs, just one floor above where we are now,
Mr. Speaker, we saw that process utilized to prevent us from having the
ability to even have a vote on whether or not we would create the
potential to increase refinery capacity.
And then in the dead of night, in the very dead of night on the so-
called SCHIP bill, which virtually every single one of us want to make
sure that poor kids are able to have access to health care, we want to
do that, but we don't want us to proceed with something that was done
in the dead of night at 1 o'clock in the morning by the Rules
Committee, and that is take the Medicare Advantage program and
basically throw that out the window, undermining the ability for senior
citizens to have access to quality health care.
And so this notion of our, as some have liked to say, whining about
process is not the case. We are here fighting on behalf of the American
people so that we can have some success with the process of
representing them as effectively as possible.
Now, we know that throughout the last couple of years and, in fact,
at the beginning of this year, we, as Members of the United States
House of Representatives, were promised an awful lot. And, Mr. Speaker,
I know that often the other side will simply raise criticism about how
we as Republicans managed this institution. And I have admitted that we
have made mistakes. I admitted that we didn't do it perfectly. And I
know we have three present members of the Rules Committee and one
former member of the Rules Committee here, and I have acknowledged to
them that we didn't do everything perfectly.
But I will say this, Mr. Speaker: our discussion here is not about
what we did. It is about what Members of the new majority promised they
were going to do.
I would like to share a couple of quotes, and we have got some charts
here. I don't often use charts, Mr. Speaker, but I think it is
important to point to some of the things that were said.
Here is a quote from Steny Hoyer, the majority leader. Let's look at
this, Mr. Speaker. In testimony that he gave before the Rules Committee
on June 23 of 2003, he said: ``Mr. Chairman,'' I guess he was
addressing me at that point. He said: ``The lack of a free and fair
debate on such important matters is an embarrassment to the Members who
are privileged to serve here. It demeans this House. It cheats the
American people, and it offends our democratic traditions.''
So we were promised that there would be a new day, a new day when
they became the majority. Let me just take a moment to look at the
track record, and then I want to begin yielding to some of my
colleagues.
In the last 9 months, this Rules Committee has issued more than
double, in fact, many more than double the number of closed rules than
our Republican majority Rules Committee did. Now, Mr. Speaker, for
those of our colleagues who may not have been following this all that
closely, it means no amendments and very limited debate. So we were
promised this new open process that was denied in the past, and yet
they have come forward with more than twice as many completely closed
rules, shutting out any opportunity for amendment.
This Rules Committee has rejected more minority-sponsored amendments
than the Rules Committee of the past did.
{time} 1830
And Mr. Speaker, this Rules Committee has, unfortunately, reduced by
a full day the amount of time that Members and their staff have to
review the bills and to submit their amendments. So they promised that
all this great deliberation was going to take place, and they've
actually cut nearly in half the amount of time the Members have to
review and look at and offer amendments to measures.
One of the most outrageous things of all, Mr. Speaker, one of the
most outrageous policies to come forward is one which is a slap in the
face at any American who has their Representative here trying to offer
an amendment for them. For management purposes, if the
[[Page H11138]]
Rules Committee obviously establishes that they are going to have some
kind of structured rule, we have a deadline for filing, and that
deadline is stated, for example, at 5 p.m. on a certain date. And we
have instance after instance where Members have literally arrived at
the door 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 minutes after 5 p.m. and they've been
told that their amendment can't even be considered, can't even be
submitted for the Rules Committee to consider. Now, I will say that
this is something that has never been done in the 220-year history of
this institution.
The Rules Committee was established, Mr. Speaker, on the 2nd of
April, 1789, which was the second day of the first Congress. Since that
period of time, we have never had this kind of treatment of Members.
And that's a new policy that has been put into place under this so-
called enhancement of deliberativeness, openness, transparency,
disclosure and accountability, and all of those words that we've
continued to hear from so many in the past who have touted all the
changes that need to be made.
So let's see what we've got. Okay. We've got a quote from the very
distinguished chairwoman, the gentlewoman from Rochester, New York (Ms.
Slaughter). Now, this was on the 20th of April in 2005. And in this
quote, she was describing the job of ranking minority member of the
Rules Committee in a press release that was put out. It is the job that
I now hold as ranking minority member. And in this press release she
stated, ``My job on the Rules Committee is to serve as the guardian of
the democratic process in the House. That process and the democratic
values of everyday Americans are under attack by an out-of-control
majority. Someone has to step up to the plate and ensure that the
business of this House is conducted in an ethical manner, without
corruption and without arrogance. I didn't ask for that job, but I
humbly accept the responsibility.'' Now, that's a statement that was
made by the very distinguished present chairman of the Committee on
Rules.
Mr. Speaker, I have to say that when we look at this record over the
past 9 months, it is, to me, a very, very sad commentary that every
single American has had their rights undermined on dealing with
substantive public policy issues.
Just upstairs about 2 hours ago in the Rules Committee, we,
unfortunately, reported out a rule dealing with a very important issue
that we're going to be considering this week, and there were some
questions that were raised. The minority was promised last August 2, 2
months ago today, that that issue would be resolved. And unfortunately,
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes), who serves as the ranking
member of a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee on the issue in
question, which is one that we want to address, it's one that's getting
a great deal of attention now, but what happened? The issue and the
concerns that were raised in a bipartisan way were completely ignored;
so, no opportunity whatsoever to address that.
We offered two amendments upstairs to try and address those and,
unfortunately, by a partisan vote we saw the American people, through
their Representatives on the Rules Committee, denied that chance to
have this issue dealt with in a bipartisan way, as had been promised in
the past.
There are a number of issues that I would like to get into to
discuss. We know probably the one that has gotten the most attention
within the last week had to do with the aftermath of the unveiling of
our very important out-of-order report, which again I would say to my
colleagues, I encourage them to look at this report. It's available at
rules-republicans.house.gov. And any of our colleagues can go online
right now and get a copy of this. And Mr. Speaker, I would encourage
them to do that.
After we unveiled this plan last week, Mr. Speaker, in which we
talked about this problem, the Rules Committee took action which I find
to be absolutely reprehensible, and there was bipartisan concern voiced
over the action that was taken. We were considering a critical issue.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the other natural disasters
that we faced in this country, the issue of flood insurance is one
which clearly is not partisan at all. I mean, Republicans, Democrats,
independents have tragically been victimized by these natural
disasters. They've hit primarily the Gulf Coast, and my friend from
Florida certainly has been often victimized by hurricanes in south
Florida, and others have dealt with this very serious challenge. Well,
there were a number of amendments that had been proposed. Our friend
from Georgia (Mr. Price) is here, and he is going to talk about one.
When the Committee on Financial Services went through its markup
process, there was an indication provided, and I will let him expand on
this, that the process of dealing with flood insurance would be
addressed going through the process and that there would be opportunity
for amendments to be considered. In fact, the chairman of the Committee
on Financial Services came before the committee on Rules and asked that
a number of Republican amendments be made in order.
Mr. Speaker, we couldn't believe what happened. There were 13
amendments made in order on that bill; not one single Republican
amendment was made in order on that bill. And what happened? We saw
bipartisan outrage. There were people, including the chairman of the
Committee on Financial Services, who could not support that rule. And
that was unprecedented. I've been here 27 years and I've never seen a
circumstance like that. And so what this shows, Mr. Speaker, is the
Rules Committee is being used very arrogantly to undermine the rights
of the American people to deal with an issue as critical as flood
insurance reform.
And so it saddens me that we've had to take this time out, it truly
does, because I know that I would very much like to be able to work in
a bipartisan way on all of these issues. I've continued to try and do
that in the past, and I will continue, as all of my colleagues will, to
strive for bipartisanship on behalf of the American people in the
future.
Let me say that I am very privileged again to be joined by my
distinguished colleagues on the Rules Committee, and we now have two
former members of the Rules Committee who have come to the floor as
well. And I begin by recognizing my very good friend, the gentleman
from Miami, Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart). I'm happy to yield to my
friend.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I thank my dear friend for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, it's sad to have to take the floor to discuss the issue
that we are discussing this evening. We recognize we are in the
minority, and in this great representative democracy, as in all
representative democracies, the majority gets to rule. We recognize
that. But as indispensable and a key ingredient of representative
democracy as the rule of the majority is respect for the minority.
So what we are speaking about this evening, Mr. Speaker, first, I
would say it's the great contrast, the extraordinary contrast between
the promises made by the new majority they would institute fairness and
transparency as they ran and when they ran the House of
Representatives. The contrast between those promises and the
performance of almost now the entire first year of this Congress, first
session of this 110th Congress, the contrast between the promise and
the performance is really extraordinary.
I would like to read a quote by the now distinguished chairman of the
Rules Committee last December. She stated, ``We are going to give
people an honest and contemplative body that they can be proud of once
more. We are going to have a much more open process.''
Mr. Dreier, our ranking member, stated how the number of closed rules
in this first year of the rule of the new majority, closed rules being
rules that bring bills to the floor to this great body that do not
permit amendments by any and all Members of this body. Rules that
permit amendment by any Member of this great body are called open
rules. Closed rules, obviously, are the opposite. The number of closed
rules, of exclusivist rules, rules that close out debate by this body
on bills, have more than doubled, more than doubled in this first year
by--they have more than doubled during this first year of rule by the
new majority that promised to go in the other direction, in other
words, to increase the amount
[[Page H11139]]
of transparency and openness. So it's sad, it's sad, Mr. Speaker, to
have to point out that extraordinary contrast between their promise and
their performance.
Mr. DREIER. If I could reclaim my time, I would just like to ask my
friend to repeat that again. We've got this chart here that shows this,
that if you juxtapose the 109th and the 110th Congress, you can see
that if you look at the number of closed rules, we have had a dramatic
increase in the number of closed rules. I think it's even more than
this chart has shown, more than double. And again, today, we just, in
the last couple of hours, had more closed rules.
And I'm happy to further yield.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I think the ranking member is
pointing to a very important point, and that is that as the time
approached and when we issued our report, and I think it's important to
point out that that report was put online last week. I think other
distinguished members of the Rules Committee are going to point out the
problems that we had with regard to even getting authority to have a
Web page.
Mr. DREIER. Now, is this the report that our colleagues can actually
get by going to rules-republicans.house.gov? Is that the same report?
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Yes. And I would, Mr. Speaker,
highly recommend to our colleagues that they read this report. Because
as I'm sure will be explained, it was difficult for the minority even
to get the report posted because we couldn't have a Web page until last
week.
What the ranking member has been pointing to is that that posting of
the report, making public of our report with regard to the great
contrast between the promise and the performance, the promise of open
transparency and the promise, the reality of further closing the
process and making it even more unfair, as the date approached when we
were going to make public that report, the number of closed rules
increased. And we've seen, the ranking member pointed out, that the
day, that same day, Mr. Speaker, that we made public that report
explaining the reality of closed rules and the excessively exclusivist
process during this entire year, the first year of the new majority's
rule, that day, when we made the report public, as the ranking member
pointed out, not one amendment by the minority, not one Republican
amendment was allowed in legislation that was nonpartisan. Even the
chairman, the ranking member said that in his 27 years he has never
seen something like that. In my 15 years I've never seen something like
that. The chairman of the committee stated that it was unfair, that it
was unjustified. He is a very eloquent Member of this Congress. So I'm
not going to quote him. I don't aspire to remember word for word what
he said, but I do remember that the chairman said that it was unfair
for the rule to have closed out every single Republican amendment. And
he didn't vote for the rule. That's something I've never experienced in
my 15 years here. I've never seen that. That was so dramatic.
{time} 1845
So I just want to point out, Mr. Speaker, two examples. We have
distinguished colleagues waiting to speak. One I have never seen in my
15 years here. I was appointed to the Rules Committee in December of
1994. During the entire time that I served in majority in the Rules
Committee, I never saw anything like this. A Member came to introduce
an amendment. Now, obviously, Mr. Speaker, as you can see, there are
many chairs here. This is a House of 435. The reason that on that
second day of the first Congress the Rules Committee was established,
even though the House was not as large in membership, it still was a
large body even then, on the second day of the Congress of the United
States, the first Congress, the Rules Committee was created so that
this body could function. It is understood by every Member of this
House that if every Member on every bill, on every piece of legislation
could debate an amendment or two, that would, in effect, constitute a
filibuster, because 435 Members, obviously, even though they had only
one amendment per bill, would take up days and days of this body. So
the Rules Committee was devised. It was created on that second day of
the first Congress to manage this House.
Now, most of the time, at least much of the time, it is understood by
the membership that you are not going to be able to have your amendment
debated here on the floor of this great test, Congress, in the world.
But you have somewhere where you can go when you've worked hard and you
have an idea to improve legislation.
When you have an amendment, there's somewhere you can go. It is right
above here. We are on the second floor. It is on the third floor right
over there. You can go to the Rules Committee with your idea, with the
product of your work and study, your idea to improve a bill in the form
of an amendment. Your colleagues there, the majority and the minority,
they have to listen to you, hopefully with respect, listen to your
idea, listen to your amendment, and really pass judgment on it in the
sense, in the process of managing this House, either making in order or
not making in order your amendment. But there is that place where you
can go, and that is the Rules Committee.
When I saw that one of our colleagues this year, a distinguished
colleague, Todd Akin, was, because he was a few minutes late and he got
to the Rules Committee with the product of his hard work and dedication
to improve legislation, it was somewhat technical, Mr. Speaker, it was
called a second-degree amendment, in other words an amendment to an
amendment. Obviously, he could not draft that amendment to an amendment
until he had seen the amendments. So he didn't have time to get there
before the deadline. Well, as the ranking member said, and we don't
espouse to have been perfect, but one thing I never saw, and never
thought I would see, is that Mr. Akin, when he arrived with the product
of his hard work and dedication, because he was literally a few minutes
late, he wasn't even allowed to enter the committee room to file the
amendment. That is something that is very sad.
So I will say, Mr. Speaker, this may seem technical and overly
procedural to some of our colleagues perhaps who may be listening to
the debate, or others, the American people, perhaps, it may seem like a
technical debate. But it is important for the following reason: When
Mr. Akin is not allowed to enter the committee room to present, to
introduce his amendment because he is a few minutes late, that affects
policy. That is profoundly unfair. As I said before, it is just as
important to democracy, to representative democracy, for there to be
rule of the majority, as it is for there to be respect of the minority.
One final example, just last week, before us came legislation that
the distinguished ranking member referred to as ``consensus''
legislation. We all support, or almost all, certainly in this body,
support the health insurance program for children of economically
disadvantaged families. It is called SCHIP, the State Children's Health
Insurance Program. There is a consensus here of support, bipartisan
support for that program.
Unfortunately, the Democrats have come with a massive increase in the
program, and we were debating that, the ranking member pointed out, the
first time we debated it was late at night or early in the morning, and
we sought to have input for debate. I was most disappointed in the last
version that, in my view, excessively and unreasonably increases taxes,
and while massively expanding that program, did not include something
that I thought was elementally responsible to include, and appropriate
to include in a massive increase of the program, and that is legal
immigrant children.
I pointed that out, how disappointed I was. I had an amendment so
that the House could debate that issue. Well, the amendment was not
made in order. But in addition to that, in something that I think was
very unfair, the ranking member, the lead Republican in the Energy and
Commerce Committee, he had been shut out from the discussions, it is
called conference committee, the final discussions on formulation of
the bill, of the legislation. And he pointed out, because, when I said
how sad and unfortunate it is that in this massive expansion of this
program, you are not including legal, I repeat, legal immigrant
children and pregnant women,
[[Page H11140]]
and friends on the other side of the aisle pointed out, well, the
Senate in conference didn't want that, so it is not in the bill.
Well, the lead Republican minority member from the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, Mr. Barton, said, you know, if I would have been
called into the room to the conference meeting, I would have pushed the
Senate. Did you say the Senate Republicans didn't want that? Well, the
House Republican leadership, I, Mr. Barton, said this, in the Rules
Committee, when we met, would have been pushing that issue because we
separate the issue of illegal and legal immigration. While there is
opposition to illegal immigrants receiving benefits, Mr. Barton said,
with regard to legal immigrant children and pregnant mothers, pregnant
women, I would have been there, Mr. Barton said.
Mr. DREIER. If I can reclaim my time, I would say parenthetically it
is very interesting to note that this program that has passed, which
has now been sent down to the President's desk, which he will veto
tomorrow, is a program that actually does include an opportunity for
benefits for people that are in this country illegally, which is
incredible.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Barton pointed out with
regard to the issue of legal immigrant children and pregnant women, he
would have been there in the conference room had he been allowed to be
in the conference advocating for the position.
In summary, as I yield back to the distinguished ranking member, Mr.
Speaker, I would say that an excessively restrictive process is not
only technical; it leads to bad policy in addition to being most
unfair. What is truly sad is that this majority promised time and again
to be the most fair, the most open, and the most transparent majority
as it ran, in the way in which it ran this House in history, and in
effect, it has been exactly the opposite.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his very thoughtful
remarks.
We have 25 minutes left, and we have a lot of our colleagues who need
to be heard on this issue. I think the gentleman from Miami makes the
point very, very clearly, the fact that this is not simply a technical
issue. This is about the American people's rights being undermined by
this new leadership here in the House of Representatives. It is very
unfortunate.
I thank the gentleman for his fine service on the Rules Committee and
again for his thoughtful remarks.
I am happy to yield to my very good friend from Pasco, WA, who labors
long and hard on the Rules Committee, as well.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I
appreciate your getting this time. I appreciate my colleagues that are
going to speak later.
Mr. Speaker, this issue is about promises, because we live in the
greatest country in the world where people make their decisions on who
will govern them by the promises that they made. I would really like to
emphasize the point that has been made several times by the
distinguished ranking member and the gentleman from Florida, that
process has consequences, because ultimately process turns into
substance, it turns into laws, and, of course, that is what governs us.
Mr. DREIER. If I could point out, let me just point to the statement
that was made by the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, since
my friend mentioned the word ``promise.'' I will point to this one
first. It says: ``We promise the American people that we would have the
most honest and open government and we will.'' I am happy to further
yield to my friend.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I appreciate the gentleman saying that. I
note that that statement was made after the election. Presumably, there
was a decision made that the campaign was about change, and so this
statement was made after the election.
The statement that I have up here by the distinguished chairman now
of the Rules Committee, Louise Slaughter, was also made after the
election. It says: ``It is our goal to use rules responsibly, opening
up the workings of the House and using it to usher in the most honest
and ethical Congress in history. An open process will mean that more
commonsense legislation written in the national interest will get to
the House floor and be voted on.''
Mr. DREIER. If I could just interject, I would like to make this
point one more time. ``An open process will mean that more commonsense
legislation written in the national interest will get to the House
floor and be voted on,'' and here we are with twice the number of
closed rules, shutting out any opportunity for amendment, limiting
debate, preventing Members from having an opportunity to even submit
their amendments to the Rules Committee, and that is what we were
promised?
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. We were promised this after the election,
I remind my friend from California, this was after the election.
The reason for this is very obvious. The role of the Rules Committee
is to funnel legislation so that every Member could have a possibility
to be heard. We have 19 standing committees. Because we have two
vacancies, there are 433 Members of the House today. We simply couldn't
control this unless we had the standing committees doing their work.
Yet, Mr. Speaker, the Rules Committee this year is on track to
rewrite more bills in the Rules Committee than we ever did during the
12 years that we were in control of Congress. They have done it with
troops in Iraq. They did it with lobby reform. They did it with the
farm bill legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a bit about the farm bill. I come from
rural America. I was very much involved in that process as we are going
forward. I recall very, very specifically that when the farm bill came
out of committee, it came out of committee with strong bipartisan
support. Yet, when we went to the Rules Committee the next day to
report out a rule, there was a massive tax increase that was put on
that farm bill.
I remember the distinguished ranking member, last year's chairman, of
the Agriculture Committee, Bob Goodlatte from Virginia, came to the
Rules Committee and testified. He said, I felt betrayed by what went
on, because he was not a part of that process. I know, I can speak to
the bipartisan nature of how this farm bill was put together as it
relates to the farm because there was a hearing in my district. There
were four Republicans and four Democrats that showed up to this hearing
last June, so this was a process in the making. Yet, at the last
minute, all that process was thrown aside, and it was a broken deal.
It is bad because of what is happening. The policies that we have in
place have potential detrimental effects to the farmers. The farm bill,
I might add, expired at the end of September.
{time} 1900
We put a 2-week extension on that. I suspect we will probably have to
have another 2-week extension on that. It is not right, in a body of
this size, to rewrite bills in the Rules Committee.
I want to follow up on my friend from Florida who talked about the
SCHIP bill. That bill was enacted on a bipartisan basis in 1997. I
supported that. It was part of a larger bill. That was probably the
most egregious rewrite. We met at 1:00 in the morning, only had about
an hour to look at what was in the bill, and there was a lot of rumors
going around, but we met at 1:00 in the morning, a 500-page bill.
I got a heads-up from a clinic in my district that is physician owned
that they would be out of business if this bill were signed into law.
Mr. DREIER. If the gentleman would yield, they said they would be out
of business if this were to pass?
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. They said they would be out of a business
because of a provision that related to the Medicare part that they
added to the SCHIP bill as related to physician-owned facilities. This
facility was put in place in 1940, 67 years ago, and yet the provision
within this bill said that you could not have physician-owned
hospitals.
I might add, Mr. Speaker, that this clinic in Wenatchee, Washington,
covers an area the size of the State of Maryland. Now, if the idea is
to expand health care, why would you potentially shut down a facility
that covers the geographic size of the State of Maryland?
We went around and around with those that were testifying in favor of
[[Page H11141]]
this particular bill, and they first started out and said no, you're
mistaken, that is not in the bill. But after discussions going on with
my friend from Texas (Mr. Sessions) and me going back and forth, they
admitted at nearly 3:00 in the morning that yes, that provision was in
there, and it was intended to be in there.
Mr. DREIER. If I can reclaim my time, they said, and I do remember
this very well, but I think it's important for my colleague to repeat
this, they said that they intended it to be here because they didn't
want any physicians to have even the slightest interest in hospitals,
so for that reason they were going to deny the opportunity for a health
facility for a quarter of a million people in an area that is
geographically the size of the entire State of Maryland in eastern
Washington?
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. That is exactly right. It was done
purposely. They first said we must be mistaken. But after probing and
asking questions, they were essentially saying that you could not get
any Medicare reimbursement if you were a physician-owned facility.
Now, I just don't understand what the motivation is behind that. But
the point is, and we are obviously working on this because we don't
want this to happen, but this is what happens when the process gets all
messed up and you start rewriting bills in the middle of the night.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to point out those two examples. I think it's
contrary to the promises that were made by the new majority and what
they have carried out. I think that is something that needs to be
talked about.
I want to thank the ranking member for putting this Special Order
together so we can discuss these issues in an open manner.
Mr. DREIER. I thank my friend for his dedication, his hard work, and
thank God President Bush is going to veto that SCHIP bill tomorrow,
because if we end up with that legislation potentially jeopardizing a
quarter of a million Washingtonians' access to health care at that
health facility, it is something that we all would find frightening,
and clearly no one wants to see that happen. And yet they said, I mean
none of us want to see it happen, but they said they intended to close
down this facility.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. They said they intended to. And let's
look at this from a little different perspective. This facility has
been in business for 67 years. Clearly, clearly they have a following
in that community, or they wouldn't have survived in that competitive
atmosphere unless there were people that wanted to go to that facility.
Mr. DREIER. Is that in Pasco?
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. It's in Wenatchee, Washington, the
Wenatchee Valley Health Clinic. So it's an egregious abuse of the
rules, in my view. I don't want to take all the time. I yield back to
my friend.
Mr. DREIER. I thank my friend for his very thoughtful statement and
his hard work and dedication to his constituents in the American
people.
Mr. Speaker, we have a load of Members here who have been victimized,
for lack of a better term, by the Rules Committee. I would first like
to yield to my very good friend, the gentleman from Marietta, Georgia
(Mr. Gingrey), who served long and hard on the Rules Committee in the
majority, and he now sees what has happened, and it's very unfortunate.
We miss him in the Rules Committee, I will say, Mr. Speaker. But we are
very happy he is taking time from his busy schedule to join us here
this evening. I am happy to yield to my friend.
Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, the
distinguished ranking member and former chairman of the Rules
Committee, my colleague, for yielding a little time. I know we have got
other Members, Mr. Speaker, who want to address this issue.
I do thank the ranking member and all my former colleagues on the
Rules Committee for the work they have done in regard to this issue. I
look forward and I encourage all my colleagues and anybody who's got a
computer that is interested not just in process, Mr. Speaker, because
bad process leads to bad policy, but I would encourage anybody to go to
this address.
Mr. DREIER. I have got the address right here.
Mr. GINGREY. I was just going to say: rules-republicans.house.gov.
That is exactly right. The ranking member is correct.
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Miami on the Rules Committee, my
former colleague on the Rules Committee, he is still there, Lincoln
Diaz-Balart, brought up that point about the second-degree amendments
in reference to the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Akin.
Mr. Speaker, I had the same situation. As a former immediate past
member of the Rules Committee who enjoyed, I thought, pretty good
collegiality with both sides during the two years that I was privileged
to serve on the Rules Committee, I had the same situation, a second-
degree amendment, and I couldn't really get it filed until a first-
degree amendment was actually brought in under the deadline.
There was no way. Mr. Diaz-Balart pointed that out. A second-degree
amendment, by its very nature, is going to be a late amendment. They
absolutely shut the door; they, the new majority. I was just absolutely
astounded that that happened to a former member and colleague on the
Rules Committee.
The whole point is, as the gentleman from California points out, this
whole process where they promised to bring reform and openness has
absolutely been a farce, a fiasco. They have closed down the process.
They have done nothing of which they promised. I am glad to be here
tonight to weigh in just a little bit.
Mr. Speaker, I want to yield back because other Members want to
speak. I thank the gentleman from California.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I will say again we very much miss the
gentleman from Georgia's active participation on the Committee on
Rules. He was very, very helpful to us time and time again. It saddens
me greatly that his constituents, the American people, are denied an
opportunity to have thoughtful proposals even considered whatsoever by
the Rules Committee, not even a chance to be denied for consideration
here on the House floor.
I know that I want to recognize my friend Mr. Sessions, who's here,
but we also want to recognize another very distinguished former member
of the Rules Committee. I again am saddened that he is not able to
serve with us on the Rules Committee any longer. That's what happens
when you go under the minority. We look forward to one day, I hope in
the very, very, very near future, to his return for that.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to my friend from Utah.
Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member. I
realize when we talk about procedure, it is boring. People's eyes start
to glaze over.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I am fascinated by it, I will tell you. It
absolutely intrigues me when my friends talk about process here.
Mr. BISHOP of Utah. You are 1 out of 435. But one of the current
senior Democrat chairmen 20 years ago wrote that if I let you write
substance and you let me write procedure, I will win every time.
Actually, he didn't use quite those words, but I don't think the actual
verbiage can be used with the rules of our House. But it is the same
sentiment that has to be there.
Poor procedure has been said creates poor policy. And the ranking
member has already said there have been more closed rules, fewer
minority Members' rules allowed this year than ever before.
I was in the Education Committee when Representative Ehlers made his
amendment, accepted by the chairman on a voice vote; and yet, when the
bill came out of the Rules Committee, the amendment had magically
disappeared, a bill that affected my State in redistricting.
Mr. Gohmert from Texas had made an excellent amendment in the
Judiciary Committee, but when that bill came out of the Rules
Committee, once again that amendment had basically simply disappeared.
I realize the Rules Committee is a political type of committee, but
it is coming to the point right now when someone says, ``Well, you
better go make your case before the Rules Committee,'' you simply
abandoned all hope. It is like being on the Titanic and being told that
the ship coming to rescue you is the Lusitania.
[[Page H11142]]
I have been on the Rules Committee, as has been said. I have been
chairman of a rules committee in Utah. And I realize that more than
just simply moving legislation, the committee should try and find
bipartisan solutions; should make sure that we spend time in debate on
the floor vetting issues that were not covered in committee, especially
when so many bills are being written by the Rules Committee.
Mr. DREIER. To reclaim my time, I will tell you we had a perfect
example of that, as I alluded to earlier, and my Rules Committee
colleagues know this very well.
We were trying to deal with this military justice issue. The ranking
member of the subcommittee said he was promised an opportunity to
address these concerns that were there, and neither the committee nor
the Rules Committee allowed that kind of free-flowing discussion to
which my friend refers.
I am happy to further yield.
Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. The
amendments I have actually brought to the Rules Committee were, in my
estimation, trying to produce a bipartisan approach, or in dealing
especially with one that impacted my State of Utah, an amendment that
we were trying to talk about a bill that had been changed significantly
in the Rules Committee from what had been discussed in the committee,
but trying to do amendments that would have saved my State millions of
dollars and allowed us to have the flexibility of creating the process
that we wanted to have. Both Mr. Cannon and I presented those in Rules.
All of them were totally shut down.
The Rules, there is a little bit more to that. Allow me to quote once
again from an issue that happened about 20 years ago when a Speaker of
the House was forced to resign in a very partisan atmosphere. He said,
all year, partisanship had fed on itself, frustrating each side, driven
each side apart. The majority at that time, the Democrats, were looking
at the majority. The majority group contemptuous of it, the minority,
more determined to govern in spite of it, more arbitrary and faced with
increasing arbitrariness of the majority, the minority grew more
irresponsible and more destructive of the institution.
The Rules Committee has a function more than just establishing the
parameters of what amendments will be discussed and the debate. They
have a responsibility to establish an atmosphere, indeed, a tone, on
the floor. And they can either fan the flames of partisanship or they
can build a process that encourages bipartisanship and encourages
discussion of issues, issues that have not been vetted before on the
floor. That is what the Rules Committee should be doing, and I am sad
to say it has not been in evidence so far this year on the floor.
Mr. DREIER. Absolutely. Mr. Speaker, let me just say how much I
appreciate, and, again, after having heard him, miss my friend from my
Utah's very, very thoughtful and incisive insight on the Rules
Committee.
I mentioned earlier the fact, Mr. Speaker, that we have dealt with
this flood insurance bill. It should have been very bipartisan. We have
two Members who were victimized by that right here, the gentleman from
Georgia and the gentleman from New Jersey, and I am happy to yield to
them. We just have a few minutes left. Obviously we could go on and on
and on because there are so many Members.
I am happy to yield first to my friend from Georgia.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and the
ranking member, my good friend from California for yielding and for
your leadership on this issue and on so many others that come to our
House.
You mentioned, and folks have mentioned, that we have been
victimized. Well, Mr. Speaker, we haven't been victimized; the American
people have been victimized. Because we were promised, we in the House
of Representatives were promised, but the American people were
promised, an open process. They were promised a fair process. And, as
you mentioned, the stories are too numerous to stipulate each
individually.
But the story that I bring is one of the flood insurance bill, the
Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act that came just last week.
We had an amendment that we were essentially assured would be made in
order through the assurances of the Chair of that committee, that we
would have an open and deliberative process.
Mr. DREIER. In fact, as I recall, the chairman testified and said he
supported the notion of making the gentleman's motion in order.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. You are absolutely correct. The amendment to
file with the Rules Committee was 5 p.m., an arbitrary deadline, but
that is all right. It is a deadline, 5 p.m.
My office submitted our amendment electronically to the Rules
Committee, as we do all the time, 8 minutes before 5 o'clock, 4:52 p.m.
In the process of bringing that hard piece of paper over to the Rules
Committee, we got that there at 5:03 p.m., 3 minutes after 5:00.
Mr. DREIER. So they had already the amendment electronic submitted
before the 5 o'clock deadline; am I correct in saying that?
Mr. PRICE of GEORGIA. You are absolutely right. The amendment was
within the purview at that point of the Rules Committee. They had
notice.
Now, again, it is not that we were denied the amendment. It is that
the American people were denied the opportunity to have a substantive
amendment debated on the floor of the House. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I
believe that the President is going to veto that piece of legislation,
and I believe he is going to do so because our amendment was not
allowed to be acted upon by the House, because he supported the
amendment that we would have offered, which was a very substantive
amendment, a significant change in the flood insurance reform bill.
{time} 1915
As my friend from California mentioned, there were 13 amendments made
in order to that bill, 13 Democrat amendments, no Republican
amendments. I suggest, Mr. Speaker, that is all politics, that is all
politics. Again, it doesn't harm us personally. What it does is
disenfranchise nearly half of the American people, and that is why this
matters. What it means is that nearly half of this body is not given
the opportunity and the right that they were given in winning their
election.
We all represent essentially the same number of people. When the
majority does not allow a certain Member or Members to offer amendments
or to offer their best ideas, what they do is disenfranchise nearly
half of the American people.
I can only think of three reasons why that would be done. One, it is
a broken promise. We have seen the promises. Two, it is for political
expediency. Or, three, it is what de Tocqueville called the tyranny of
the majority. That is what I believe we have, a tyranny of the majority
that is running this House right now. It doesn't hurt me personally,
but it hurts the institution, it hurts our democracy, and it
disenfranchises nearly half of the American people.
Mr. DREIER. I thank my friend very much, and I yield to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) who was also victimized by this process.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. You spoke about the flood bill and the
problem we had here. Anytime we stifle debate, and that is what
occurred when the Democrats did this, they alter substance.
What we were trying to do with an amendment that went through
committee and we worked on with the chairman's staff, an amendment that
the chairman said withdraw the amendment from committee and he will
make sure that it gets through Rules and to the floor, our amendment
simply said we should no longer have the rich and the wealthy who live
in these great mansions on the coast and what have you, have them be
subsidized by the poor widow in the house right across the street. We
thought that was absurd. This amendment would have fixed that
situation. The chairman was on board with us. He went to the committee
and testified in favor of it as well.
Mr. DREIER. And what happened?
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. What happened was the Rules Committee
decided to not allow the amendment to come to the floor. So at the end
of the day, we have a bill where the rich are still being subsidized by
the poor. Substance was altered by the stifling of debate.
[[Page H11143]]
I will commend the chairman of the committee for all he did and by
not voting ``yes'' on the rule because even he, a Democrat chairman,
saw the error of their ways in what they did.
Mr. DREIER. He was quoted as saying he believed it wrong that they
were denied. Tragically, this was done in the aftermath of the
unveiling of this report that we put forward simply stating the facts
of what has taken place in the last 9 months.
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. I would just conclude by concurring with
the gentleman from Georgia on this. Although we are in the minority
here, this is not an issue for the minority; this is for half of
America. And it doesn't matter whether the Americans watching tonight
are Democrat or Republicans. Their voices are being silenced because
they cannot have their voices heard through us in the Rules Committee
and have their important issues made part of the process.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and now yield to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions), a hardworking member of the Rules
Committee.
Mr. SESSIONS. I thank the ranking member from California for not only
putting together this Special Order tonight, but also talking about the
Rules Committee which I think is so important. I have had an
opportunity to serve on the Rules Committee for 9 years. For 9 years
previous to this, I have seen the Rules Committee as being part of the
process to make sure that the agenda of policy is done properly by the
Speaker of the House through this committee. I would like to note to
the gentleman from California, as he remembers that, Republicans
utilized this committee to make sure that we balanced the budget, to
make sure that we had responsibility and the opportunity to make sure
that the American people benefited from that which we did here in
Washington, D.C. by cutting taxes.
Republicans balanced the budget when they said it was not possible in
1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. We went in and we balanced the
budget. We utilized the Rules Committee to make sure that we had
responsible government.
I have now seen during the last 10 months that we have been in the
minority that it is also true that the new Democrat majority utilizes
the Rules Committee to do things that I don't think that the American
people can completely understand, and that is that they want to raise
taxes, they want to raise spending, and they want to make sure that
what happens is that loopholes are there in place for them to do
earmarks despite the debate that has taken place on this floor.
So I am pleased to join the gentleman from California tonight in
summarizing that the Rules Committee is a very difficult place for all
Members. It is a difficult place whether you are in the majority or the
minority, but it is still the place where the political work gets done,
and nothing has changed. The Democrat Party is still here to raise
taxes and raise spending and to take away from the American people that
which they earn, and that is called their hard-earned money.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Dallas for his
very thoughtful remarks and hard work.
I recommend to my colleagues going to rules-republicans.house.gov to
see a copy of this very, very important report that we have just
unveiled, because it is on behalf of the American people, not any
bipartisanship, the American people, that we are fighting on behalf of
their rights.
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