Date: 2008-02-13
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Michigan. the chairman of our committee. for clarifying what this is all about. In his statement he just said that the President is trying to force us to accept this bill from the Senate so that there can be immunity granted to those communications companies that responded in the affirmative when asked to help this country. So that is what it is. Thats what this vote is all about. You can talk about a 21day extension. You can talk about wanting to work a little harder. You can talk abput this and that. but essentially that is what this vote is. It is the question of whether or not we believe that we ought to grant to those who responded in the affirmative when requested by their country to assist in the aftermath of 9/11. to allow us to collect that kind of intelligence which would prohibit or prevent another 9/11. whether or not we are going to slap them in the face and say because you answered yes. you have to. in the words of the chairman of the Constitutional Law Subcommittee when this was brought up in the committee. let them do it themselves. they have millions of dollars of highpriced attorneys. Now. thats the response we are to tell the American people if asked in the future: Will you help in gathering information so that we can prevent another attack? And. oh. by the way. make sure that you have millions of dollars worth of highpriced attorneys to respond to whatever lawsuit might be out there. Now. the question here is whether of not the majority is going to allow the majority to do its will. Why do I say that? Twentyone Members of the Democratic side have sent a letter on January 28 to the Speaker saying they support the RockefellerBond bill. Twentyone Members. Now. I was never great in math. but I do know that 21 Members on that side of the aisle. added to our Members on this side of the aisle. are a majority in the House of Representatives. So the question is: Will you allow the House to work its will? Will you allow the bill from the Senate. which 21 Members on your side of the aisle have signed a letter in support of. come to the floor so we can find out whether or not the majority of this House will support it? We were denied that in the Rules Committee. We were denied that on two specific votes in the Rules Committee. and now the only way we can allow that vote to come up is if we defeat this bill and force those on the majority side and the leadership to allow the majority to work its will. Interestingly enough. the gentlelady from Texas who just spoke talked about how we ought to support this bill. I remember in August when she stood in that very well and tore up a piece of paper and said this is what were doing. were shredding the Constitution by voting for the bill that was then on the floor. And now were supposed to understand that the other side wants us to have 3 weeks more of a bill which shredded the Constitution. Lets understand what were really doing here: Lets vote this down so we can vote on the bill that the majority of the people in this House and the majority of Americans support.