[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4830-4831]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 REGULAR ORDER LACKING UNDER DEMOCRATS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Madam Speaker, I just wanted to come back and talk 
a little bit more about the majority and the work schedule and the work 
ethics that they seem to be putting forth. I could come up and read my 
BlackBerry and my schedule to you. I don't know if that is exactly what 
our constituents had in mind, was electing us and paying us to come up 
here and go to receptions and go to dinners and travel around 
ourselves. That is understandable. I think what they sent us up here to 
do was to do the people's business.
  The gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) came up and talked 
about regular order. I just had to come back, Madam Speaker, to address 
regular order. I have almost forgotten what regular order is because 
since we have taken over, since the Democrats took over January 4, I 
guess we have had maybe this bill and one other bill that actually went 
through regular order.
  We had an organizational meeting for my committees, and I think I 
have had one other meeting in one of the committees, two hearings or 
three hearings in another committee, not actually about any of the 
specific legislation.

[[Page 4831]]



                              {time}  1445

  In fact, the bills that have come to the floor have been taken out of 
two of the committees that I serve on to be brought directly to the 
floor without any kind of markup.
  So I nicknamed this Congress, Madam Speaker, the smoke and mirrors 
Congress, and I think that they have done, and I am talking about the 
majority party that is in control now, have done a wonderful job with 
smoke and mirrors and fooling the American people.
  We did a smoke and mirrors on the minimum wage. We did a smoke and 
mirrors on the war resolution. We have done several smoke and mirrors, 
and we continue to do smoke and mirrors.
  It is just like the 5-day work week. They never address the 5-day 
work week. Where is the 5-day work week? Since the first week of 
January, we have had one 5-day work week. We may be going to have 
committee hearings, and we may be going to go to all these parties and 
receptions and other things, but when are we going to work? Because 
most of my constituents are at work right now. In fact, most of them, 
some of them, possibly started at 6 o'clock this morning. A lot of the 
airline people work a 5:00 a.m. shift. A lot of them start at 7:00, but 
we start at 10:00, and I have not had a hearing earlier than 10 
o'clock, and today we finished the legislative business at 2:15.
  So, Madam Speaker, I hear all these things, and I hear some good 
ideas, and I think the people do want us to work, but let us not 
campaign on one thing and then come to Washington and do something 
else. I think the people deserve more than that.
  Also, I wanted to address the regular order thing. I am elected by 
700,000 people in the Third District of Georgia, and they expect some 
representation up here, and I do my best to do that. They want a voice 
in the things that happen on this floor, but yet I have been unable to 
offer an amendment, unable to offer an amendment when the rules of the 
House clearly state that every Member of this body has the right to 
amend a piece of legislation. But when the Rules Committee meet, they 
waive that rule.
  It is like the smoke and mirrors PAYGO that we got. People are like, 
oh, yeah, I like that PAYGO. They cannot increase the deficit or 
anything without making sure that the money is there to pay it. So, 
man, we love that PAYGO. The problem is that the Rules Committee, in 
the bill that came that involved that, waived that rule. Smoke and 
mirrors.
  So, Madam Speaker, I am going to let people rest now. I see that Mrs. 
Blackburn is here to start her Special Order, but I just want the 
people, Madam Speaker, to understand that we are up here to do the 
people's business and not just to talk a good game, but to act a good 
game. So hopefully they will see that we want to earn ourself back into 
the majority, and they will have the confidence in us to lead this 
country once again.

                          ____________________