[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15860]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            OPEN AND HONEST?

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I am intrigued by the other side's definition 
of what constitutes ``open and honest.'' After all, that was their 
pledge to America last year: if given control of Congress, they would 
make it the most open and honest Congress ever.
  So how has it been going? They started their new openness campaign by 
not allowing a single amendment to be offered on legislation for nearly 
a month. That's right. That's right. No amendments from Republicans.
  Not long after that, they had threatened to clamp down on a basic 
right of the minority, the motion to recommit that hasn't been changed 
since 1822.
  And now that appropriations season is officially under way, more 
progress. The Democrats decided to take the earmark process behind 
closed doors and away from the public eye.
  Closed rules, threatening basic minority rights, secret slush funds 
for earmark spending. Mr. Speaker, these tactics seem rather closed and 
deceptive to be taking place in the most ``open and honest'' House in 
history.

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