The One party System
...is upon us.
At the close of the House session tonight, the Dem leader, Steny Hoyer, made a rather lengthy speech to Tom DeLay. The Medicare pharmacy benefit bill is being discussed in the appropriate House committee at this time. There have been several meetings of the committee, but none of the Democratic members of the committee have been advised of where or when the meetings are taking place. With some detective work, the Democratic members learned where a meeting was about to take place and walked into the room to find Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and the Republican members of the committee working on the legislation. Upon their entry to the room, Secretary Thompson ordered the Democratic member of the committee to leave. The bottom line is this legislation is being written by the administration and Republican members of the House with Democratic members of the committee not being allowed to even voice their ideas.
Representative Hoyer said this also happened with a bill concerning the FAA-the Democratic members of the committee were completely frozen out of the discussion of the bill.
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Here's the complaints about how the Republicans rammed through a bill for the FAA (page H10164)
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition
to this rule, and I urge my colleagues
to vote it down. Just when I
think I have seen everything, the Republican
leadership comes up with a
new surprise. We are seeing appropriation
bills that no one can amend. We
have seen huge multibillion dollar omnibus
spending bills being written in
secret and shoved through the House.
We have seen twisted arms and broken
promises. But tomorrow is Halloween
and the leadership has come up with a
brand-new trick: the invisible conference
committee.
As everyone knows, just 2 days ago,
the Republican leadership, after nearly
5 weeks of delay, finally brought up a
rule to send the seriously flawed FAA
conference report back to the conference
committee. The House, in a bipartisan
way, approved that rule, with
the hope that the flaws in this bill
could be fixed and we could reauthorize
important aviation and safety programs.
Instead, the invisible conference
committee did not hold a single
public meeting, a violation of House
rules, and did not give Democratic
members any opportunity for input or
amendment. In fact, Democratic members
of the conference were never even
notified that a conference was taking
place, and they were never notified
that a new report was ready until after
this new conference report was filed.
Now, I do not even know if Republican
members of the conference committee
met, or if some leadership aide
or some lobbyist changed the bill himself
on the back of a napkin.
Mr. Speaker, this is outrageous.
When we shared our concerns with
the chairman of the Committee on
Rules last night, he told us that he understood
where we were coming from
and that he would talk to his leadership
about it. With all due respect, Mr.
Speaker, it is not enough to feel our
pain. What we are looking for is fairness.
Last night, the Committee on
Rules Republicans could have stood
with Democrats and demanded that the
House rules and procedures be respected.
They had their chance to
make their actions match their rhetoric.
But sadly, they chose, once again,
to follow their leaders, rather than follow
the rules.
Again, this is not an isolated incident;
this is part of a continuing pattern
of disregard for the rules of this
House, disregard for other points of
view, disregard for open debate, disregard
for bipartisanship, and disregard
for the American people.
As I have said before, I understand
that the majority has the responsibility
to manage the House and that
the Committee on Rules can be a tool
in that effort. But under this Republican
leadership, the Committee on
Rules has become not a tool, but a
weapon, a weapon used to smother, stifle,
and suppress; a weapon used to
cover up bad behavior and undermine
the democratic process.
These matters, Mr. Speaker, are not
just 'inside baseball.' They are matters
that directly impact the American
people.
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Mr. Speaker, this is not the way the
people's House is supposed to run.
What has happened with this conference
report is an outrage and an insult,
not only to Members of both parties,
but to the people we represent. |
