Looking Forward to Greater Participation

LOOKING FORWARD TO GREATER PARTICIPATION

Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, the Democrat Party has just ended its 6 for 600 hours, or whatever they call it. I wish I had a clock at home that tracked hours the way the Democrats did. By that standard, I would be 25 years old, and probably look a lot better, as a matter of fact; more youthful.

But I want to say this. The Democrats did this agenda based on kind of, you know, trite, older, more established, safer issues. There was no real reach for the sky here; no entitlement reform, no tax simplification, no energy independence. What they did also was cram down a bunch of things that bypassed the committee process, and I want to give a contrast with the Contract With America.

The Contract With America was 24 pieces of legislation. The number of bills we had open to amendment was nine. The number of bills considered under a closed rule was only three. The numbers of bills considered under suspension of the rules was only two. The total number of Democrat amendments, 154, of which only 95 failed. Many, many Democrat amendments passed.

I hope, as we go into your next 200 or 300 hours, that we can have a more participatory democracy.

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