IV 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 687 

Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 16, 2006 

Ms. PELOSI submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the table 

RESOLUTION 

Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 

Whereas the Republican Leadership has engaged in a continuing pattern of withholding accurate information vital 

for Members of the House of Representatives to have before voting on legislation, and has inserted numerous 

controversial provisions into completed conference reports 

in the dead of night without notifying Democratic Members of the House, the press, or the public; 

Whereas on February 1, 2006, the Republican Leadership 

permitted a vote on House Resolution 653 to concur in 

a Senate amendment to the conference agreement on 

Budget Reconciliation, despite the inclusion of inaccurate 

numbers in provisions that cost the Medicare program an 

additional $2 billion dollars; 

Whereas although the Senate Enrolling Clerk had mistakenly 

changed critical numbers which had a major financial 


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significance for Medicare, and had notified the House of 

those errors two weeks prior to the vote on February 1, 

the Republican Leadership deliberately chose to ignore 

that notification and instead allowed the House to vote 

on an incorrect version of this legislation; 

Whereas the conference agreement on Budget Reconciliation 

passed the House by the narrowest of margins, 216–214, 

with every Democrat voting in opposition, and knowledge 

of this mistake may have influenced the outcome of this 

vote, which is why the Republican Leadership chose not 

to pursue the proper course in correcting this legislation; 

Whereas as a result of the concealment of these errors in the 

enrollment of the bill, the law signed by the President of 

the United States on February 8, 2006, is not the same 

as the text cleared by the House on February 1, 2006; 

Whereas the effect of these actions raises serious constitutional questions and jeopardizes the legal status of this 

legislation and The Washington Post has reported: ‘‘Now 

there are questions about the legality of signing a bill the 

House technically did not pass’’ (The Washington Post, 

February 9, 2006); 

Whereas Republican incompetence led to numerous errors in 

this legislation, and two additional errors in the Senate 

amendment that was agreed to by House Resolution 653 

were found by the Congressional Budget Office in a report dated January 27, 2006, five days before the House 

voted on the final conference report: ‘‘The (conference report on Budget Reconciliation) contains two apparent errors in legislative language: one in section 8006 regarding direct loans to parents of postsecondary students, and 

one in section 10002 regarding bankruptcy fees.’’ (CBO 

Report on S. 1932, January 27, 2006); 


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Whereas in this ongoing pattern of abuse of power, the Republican Leadership on December 17, 2005, deliberately 

misled Members of the House by inserting into a completed conference report without debate or notification a 

provision granting liability protection for drug companies 

from cases involving consumers injured by avian flu vaccine (HR 2863, the Defense Appropriations Conference 

Report); 

Whereas the Republican Leadership inserted this liability vaccine provision at midnight, after conferees signed what 

they understood to be the final document seven hours 

earlier, thereby breaking their word and assurances that 

‘‘Avian Flu shall be funded at the House level, and will 

not include either indemnity or compensation provisions.’’ 

(House Appropriations Committee Summary, December 

17, 2005, 4:40 p.m.); 

Whereas during passage of the Prescription Drug bill in 

2003, the Republican Leadership and the committees of 

jurisdiction ignored the warnings from knowledgeable experts that the true cost of the legislation was potentially 

hundreds of billions of dollars higher than the official estimate, and intentionally misled Members of the House 

by withholding information for the sole purpose of winning passage of this extremely controversial bill by a single vote in the middle of the night; and 

Whereas the Republican Leadership’s culture of corruption 

and its repeated efforts to thwart the normal legislative 

process by cutting corners, inserting hand-written provisions into completed conference reports in the dead of 

night, and rushing through legislation with major errors, 

forces Members to vote on controversial legislation withVerDate Aug 31 2005 21:02 Feb 17, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR687.LTH HR687

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out thorough time for review and must be denounced: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Committee on Standards of Offi2 cial Conduct shall begin an immediate investigation into 

3 the abuse of power surrounding the inaccuracies in the 

4 process and enrollment of the Budget Reconciliation legis5 lation cleared for the President on February 1, 2006. 

Æ 


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