[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        REPUBLICAN HOUSE LEADERSHIP CONTINUES TO ABUSE ITS POWER

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we saw another example of how the 
Republican House leadership continues to abuse its power. The gentleman 
from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) offered an amendment to an appropriations 
bill that would have blocked a controversial provision in the PATRIOT 
Act.
  At the end of the 15 minutes of voting time, the Sanders amendment 
looked well on its way to victory with 20 Republicans voting with the 
majority of the Democrats. But the Republican leadership would not give 
the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) a victory and refused to gavel 
the vote. Despite the fact that no more Members were still waiting to 
vote, the Republican leadership left the vote open an additional 20 
minutes. What were they doing during these 20 minutes? They were 
exerting intense strong-arm pressure on their own Republican colleagues 
who had the audacity to vote against the leadership.
  The Republican leadership finally threatened enough Republicans to 
defeat the amendment. Yesterday's outrageous action was just another 
example of the Republican leadership's win-at-all-costs approach at 
running this House.
  The gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) played by the rules 
yesterday. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership long ago threw the 
rules out the window in this House. I conclude with the words chanted 
by many of my Democratic colleagues during the 20 minute delay: shame, 
shame on the Republican leadership.

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