[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE MAJORITY'S NEW STRATEGY

  (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, 6 million Americans are about to lose their 
right to overtime protection, police officers, firefighters, preschool 
teachers; and I believe that a majority of this House is ready to vote 
against that proposal and is ready to restrain that proposal from 
becoming law.
  I have, Mr. Speaker, to commend the majority because they have found 
a new way to subvert the will of the majority. On two occasions what 
the majority has done is permit a proposition to come to the floor, 
lose, as they did in the case of the Medicare vote, lose as they did in 
the case of protecting civil rights under an amendment to the PATRIOT 
Act, and then fix the result after they have lost.
  This time they have come up with a new strategy. Because the majority 
knows it will lose this vote on overtime, they are prohibiting the vote 
from coming to the floor in the first place.
  If the Labor-HHS appropriations bill were reported out of committee 
and brought to this floor, this House would get a chance to work its 
will and defeat this proposal that will deny 6 million Americans the 
right to overtime.
  I say, Mr. Speaker, to the majority, bring it to the floor. Let the 
House work its will. Let the majority protect the rights of 6 million 
Americans.

                          ____________________