Waiving Requirement Of Clause 6(a) Of Rule XIII With Respect To Consideration Of Certain Resolutions And Providing For Consideration Of Motions To Sus
WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES -- (House of Representatives - December 07, 2006)
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, the 109th Congress is ending the same way it started, in a closed and secretive fashion. I guess old habits die hard. Once again we are here on the floor debating a martial law rule that also makes today a suspension day. Here we are, once again, unsure of what we will be considering today, tonight, or tomorrow.
Now, it is hard to be shocked by the majority's tactics, because this is business as usual. Time after time the Republican majority has forced this House to consider bills under a closed process. In the 109th Congress, out of the 190 total rules reported, only one non-appropriations bill was considered under an open rule. One out of 190. That is a dismal record, even for this Republican majority.
Mr. Speaker, the trouble with this martial law rule is that it allows the House to consider any bill before we even have a chance to read it. What is going to be included in the final bill? We already know about the tax extenders, Medicare fixes and offshore drilling that will be cobbled together in one bill. What else will be thrown in here? What other surprises does this Republican majority have in store?
Just a few years ago, Mr. Speaker, liability protection for pharmaceutical companies was included in a conference report after the conference was closed. Is that going to happen again in their rush to get out of town?
Legislation is not supposed to work like this. None of the issues we are considering here are new. The Ways and Means Committee knew about the Medicare problem all year, but didn't care to act. The offshore drilling measure should be considered under regular order, but the Republican majority appears unwilling to schedule it that way. And the tax extender provisions, things like the R&D tax credits and work opportunity tax credit, to name a few, should be passed on their own and considered in the Senate in regular order.
Mr. Speaker, there is a better way to run this body. The truth, Mr. Speaker, is that the American people expect and deserve better. That is why the 110th Congress must be different. I believe we need to rediscover openness and fairness in this House. We must insist on full and fair debate on the issues that come before this body. People should have time to read the bills before they are considered. The Rules Committee will end its regular practice of meeting in the dead of night simply to report out a closed rule. There will be a new direction for the House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I don't expect that the Democratic majority will be perfect, but I do expect the incoming majority to understand that every Member of this House, Republican and Democrat, deserves to be treated with respect and fairness. Every Member, whether it is the Speaker of the House or a freshman in the minority party, represents the same number of people. Everyone deserves to be heard, everyone deserves to know what we are voting on, and nobody deserves a process as undemocratic and insulting as the one before us.
Mr. Speaker, this is a sad, but fitting, way to end the 109th Congress. As I said, old habits die hard. I hope this is truly the end of an era where rules, respect for this institution, and democracy didn't matter, and the beginning of a new direction for the House of Representatives.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, just for the record, I have no problem with the fact that people can offer suspension bills today. My problem is with the martial law rule, the martial law rule which waives clause 6(a) of rule XIII to provide for same day consideration of any rule reported on the legislative day of December 7, 2006.
This rule, which circumvents the regular 1-day layover requirement for consideration of a rule, will allow the House to consider any rule on any piece of legislation on the House floor on the same day the rule is reported without requiring the standard two-thirds vote for same-day consideration of a rule.
I guess the problem I have is, again, not with suspension bills, which are mostly noncontroversial bills, but my problem is with significant pieces of legislation, some legislation which may not have even been heard by committees of jurisdiction, which may not have been reported out of committees of jurisdiction, bills that will come before us that the House has never even considered, things that we will not have an opportunity to be able to read before we vote on them.
I keep on hearing that we need to consider our business in a timely fashion. Well, what is the rush? We could be here next week. Since they didn't get their work done before the election, we can stay here another week and do this right.
I think people expect Members of Congress when they vote on legislation to know what they are voting on. They don't want any more backroom deals. They don't want to read in the newspapers a week or two weeks from now that the House passed some omnibus bill that had all these objectionable provisions included in it.
So my point is that this is a bad process and we should do better, and I hope in the future we will do better. But here we are today, and I think those who care about responsible legislating should oppose this rule.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me respond to the gentlewoman by saying that I hope that we do not have to use martial law rules, and I hope that we will do our business. Actually, we are going to work 5 days a week, so we will be able to get our business done in a timely fashion, in a professional fashion.
But what I object to about the way this House has been run, it is not just the martial law rules, it has been the closed rules in general. It has been the closing off debate and denying not just Democrats but Republicans the chance to offer amendments on the House floor, the chance to be heard.
I am not saying every rule will be an open rule. I am not saying the Democrats are going to be perfect, but what I do believe is that we will be significantly better. We have to be.
I think one of the reasons why people have such a low regard for this Congress is they have watched how this Congress has been run, and they have seen how closed it has been and they have seen the results of that closed process: items that appear in legislation that never had committee hearings, that had never been debated on the House floor mysteriously appearing in conference reports.
I think people want a more open process, a more fair process. I think if the new majority, and I hope, and I know this is a tall order, but I hope if Speaker-elect PELOSI can create a more open and fair process in this House, that it will go a long way to increasing collegiality and respect for one another.
I think a lot of the bitterness and rancor that exists in this Congress is when people feel locked out, when they feel disrespected.
So I hope we do better and I am going to fight in the Rules Committee to do better.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me also say to my colleague from West Virginia that I have enjoyed serving on the Rules Committee with her as well, and I have enjoyed our debates. I admire her intellect and I appreciate her efforts to create a more civil Congress, and I regret that she will no longer be on the Rules Committee because I thought she added a lot to the debate and to the civility in that committee.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I would simply say to my colleagues that this process is not the process in which we should conduct our business. This martial law rule is not needed. We can stay here next week and get our business done in regular order. There is no need to rush out of here, and my fear is that we have created a process in which Members are not going to have an opportunity to even know what they are voting on.
So, with that, I would urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this martial law rule.
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