[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15096-15097]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        LEGISLATIVE ARM TWISTING

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday was a bad day for 
democracy in the House of Representatives. Adding to their laundry list 
of legislative arm twisting, House Republicans once again bent 
democracy to fit their needs by holding a vote open for 38 minutes 
until they were able to change the outcome of the vote. Thursday was 
not an isolated incidence of arrogant disregard for the political 
process by Republican leadership in this Congress. It was an example of 
the modern-day Republican win-at-all-cost style of governance.
  This shameful record speaks for itself. Never before, when the 
Democrats were in control, when Newt Gingrich was Speaker with the 
Republicans in control, never before until the last year or so has the 
House of Representatives operated in such secrecy.
  At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March last year, the House cut veterans 
benefits by 3 votes.
  At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April last year, the House slashed 
education and health care by 5 votes.
  At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the leave no 
millionaire behind tax cut bill by a handful of votes.
  At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare 
privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote.
  At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July last year, the House eviscerated 
Head Start by one vote.
  And then after returning from summer recess at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday 
in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq. Always in the middle 
of night, always after the press had passed their deadlines, and always 
after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed.
  What did the public see? At best, Americans read a small story with a 
brief explanation of the bill and the vote count in Saturday's papers, 
understanding that Saturday is the least-read paper of the week; no 
accident there. But what did the public miss? They did not see the 
House votes which normally take 17, 18, 19, 20 minutes dragging on for 
as long as an hour as Members of the Republican leadership trolled for 
enough votes to cobble together a majority.
  They did not see GOP leaders stalking the floor for whoever was not 
in line. They did not see the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker 
Hastert); the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the majority leader; 
and the majority whip, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) coerce 
enough Republican Members into switching their votes in the middle of 
the night to produce their desired results. In other words, the 
American people did not see the subversion of democracy.
  In November, they did it again. The most sweeping change to Medicare 
in its 38-year history was forced through the House at 5:55 a.m. on a 
Saturday morning. The debate started at midnight, the rollcall began at 
3. Most of us voted within the typical 20 minutes. Normally the Speaker 
would have gaveled the vote closed, but not this time because the 
Republican leadership Medicare privatization bill was losing. By 4 
a.m., the bill had been defeated 216 to 218. Then the assault began. 
The gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert), the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. DeLay), the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Committee on 
Ways and Means chairman, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) and 
the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce (Mr. Tauzin) all 
searched the floor, walked around the Chamber looking for House 
Republicans to bully, the 25 Republicans that had the integrity and the 
guts to vote against their leadership and to do the right thing.
  I watched them surround the gentleman from Cincinnati, Ohio (Mr. 
Chabot) trying first a carrot and then a stick; but he, with integrity 
intact, remained defiant. They then aimed at a retiring Member, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) whose son is running to succeed 
him. They promised support if he changed his vote to ``yes.'' They 
promised retaliation if he did not change his vote to ``yes.'' He stood 
his ground.
  Many of the two dozen Republicans who voted against the bill simply 
went home because they did not want to deal with the pressure. I found 
one Republican Member in the Democratic Cloak Room in order to avoid 
Republican arm twisting. By 4:30, the browbeating had moved into the 
Republican Cloak Room in the back of the Chamber, out of sight of C-
SPAN cameras and the insomniac public. Republican leaders woke up 
President Bush, and a White House aide passed a cell phone from one 
recalcitrant Member to another in the Cloak Room. At 5:55 a.m., 2 hours 
and 55 minutes after the rollcall began, twice as long ever as any 
rollcall had taken in the history of the House of Representatives, two 
western Republicans, one from Arizona and one from Idaho, emerged from 
that Cloak Room, walked down the aisle, picked up one of these cards, a 
green card, scrawled their name and their district number on it, and 
sheepishly surrendered it to the Clerk of the House. The Speaker 
gaveled the vote closed 2 hours and 55 minutes after it began. Medicare 
privatization had passed.
  To paraphrase Yogi Berra, I guess it is not over until the drug 
companies and the Republican leadership says it is over.
  Mr. Speaker, Republicans can do a lot in the middle of the night 
under the cover of darkness. Last week, House Republican leadership 
demonstrated a new bravado, the same kind of thing they did last year, 
month after month, by holding this vote open in broad daylight.
  What can the American people expect to see from the Republican 
leadership in the future?

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