[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           TEXAS LEGISLATURE

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. KILDEE. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to follow my 
neighbor and colleague from Texas. I also served in the State House and 
the State Senate. To compare what is being done by those heroes in 
Oklahoma now to suicide bombers is outrageous. That is just overboard.
  This is why we have the problems we have in Texas right now. They do 
not recognize the comity that has been traditional in the Texas 
legislature. We used to never fight over anything in a partisan manner 
except redistricting and election bills. Now we are going to have 
election and redistricting bills coming every 2 years because of our 
colleague, the gentleman from Texas, (Mr. DeLay).
  This is unprecedented. In 50 years, no State has ever opened 
redistricting just for partisan purposes until now in Texas and 
Colorado. The Texas Attorney General, who is a Republican, issued an 
opinion within the last month that said, no, the legislature does not 
have to reopen the redistricting process. So we are having to bring it 
here to the floor of the House simply because my colleague from 
Houston, Fort Bend County, brought it to the legislature to eliminate 
10 Members from Texas.

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