[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19403]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 HELPING CONGRESS MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

  (Mr. ISAKSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise quickly to make a couple of points. 
Sometimes we change legislation through impassioned speeches on the 
floor of this House. Sometimes, in the quiet of committees, members 
offer amendments that make substantial changes in law. Sometimes you 
can make substantial change in our practices through change in the way 
we do business.
  Yesterday, I introduced a change to the rules of House as a bill 
introduced in this House, which I would like to ask everybody to be a 
part of, that simply says this: Whenever a conference committee 
appropriates new moneys, expands a program or adds a program that was 
not incorporated within the House and Senate bills as they went through 
their normal procedure in this House, that those programs be delineated 
on the surface of that conference report, and that that conference 
report lie on the Members' desks for 24 hours before its vote.
  When the sun shines in on the knowledge of last-minute appropriations 
and deals that are made, then we in Congress will make more intelligent 
votes on the bills that come before us than the late night and late 
hours of the conference committee reports and votes.

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