[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. FLAKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FLAKE. Madam Speaker, one of my favorite things to do is go to a 
local high school and talk to government classes. For the past 10 years 
that I've been doing this, I have always told them, there are certain 
things that are done in the House that are there to protect the 
minority. One is during appropriation bills: any Member can bring any 
amendment to the floor on anything they want to that is germane to the 
bill, and the leadership can't stop them, even their own party or the 
other party.
  This past year, I wasn't able to say that anymore because for the 
first time in the history of this institution, every appropriation bill 
that came to the floor was brought under a closed rule so only the 
amendments that the majority wanted to be offered could be offered.
  Something similar is happening here. All of us have told classes that 
we have taught that your history books are right, if a bill passes the 
House and a different bill passes the Senate, the House will have to 
vote on it again. But here we're being told, no, you don't have to do 
that anymore. You can deem it passed. It just magically appears back in 
the Senate without having a vote here in the House.
  Our institution, this institution, the people's institution, deserves 
better than that.

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