[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 248-249]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      RULE CHANGES BY THE MAJORITY

  (Mr. GINGREY of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. We had two Members, Madam Speaker, speak this 
morning on the issue in the Gaza Strip. I tend to agree with my 
colleague on this side of the aisle, Mr. Poe, and tend to disagree with 
my colleague on the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Member, Mr. 
Kucinich.
  But I did want to point out something, the analogy between what he 
said and what happened on the floor of this House yesterday in regard 
to changing the rules package. Mr. Kucinich said, in regard to the 
proportionality and Israel's response to Hamas and the Gaza Strip, we 
ought to abide by the rule of law, rather than the rule of force.
  Well, I would say the same thing to the Democratic majority in 
regards to

[[Page 249]]

the rules change yesterday. You have a 40-vote margin, and you come in 
and you change the rules, and all of a sudden you weaken your PAYGO 
initiative so that you can declare spending an emergency to avoid 
PAYGO.
  You said when you took control in the 110th that this business of 
holding a vote open for 3\1/2\ hours, breaking arms to change a vote, 
should never occur. You wanted to eliminate that, and now you say 
that's okay; we can do that.
  I would say to my Democratic majority, despite those rules changes, 
for the sake of the American people, I hope my colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle come to recognize the need to include all voices in 
the legislative process.

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