Date: 2010-09-29
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my friend. the gentleman from New York . for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Today. the majority brings to the floor another closed rule denying the minority. denying all Members. the right to offer amendments. in this case. to three very important bills. Despite debating over 130 rules bringing legislation to the floor of this Congress. we have yet to see one open rule. We have before us a closed rule. as I said before. Mr. Speaker. bringing three important pieces of legislation to the floor: The 9/11 Health and Compensation legislation. It is important that we honor the police and firefighters. the first responders and volunteers also. that served New York and. really. our entire country in the aftermath of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks. Those brave men and women deserve to be treated fairly. and their families as well. Unfortunately. as noble as this bill is. it is paid for by increased taxes on companies located in the United States that are employing American workers. Many of us believe that at a time of high unemployment and really evident economic stagnation. our country should not allow the majority to raise taxes. With regard to the currency legislation. it is meant. Mr. Speaker. to provide leverage to the administration. to the President. in what is Americas ongoing work to achieve a proper valuation of the Chinese regimes currency. Despite the best efforts of the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Geithner. and others. the PRC regime has given no indication that they are willing to advance efforts to create a level playing field. and that is not acceptable. The distinguished ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. Mr. CAMP. has included changes in the legislation meant to make the bill compliant with WTO regulations. But. Mr. Speaker. make no mistake. the bill is about sending a message to the PRC regime. a message of American unity. and it is important. it is very important at this time. I think the legislation will move us closer to correcting an obvious unacceptable situation which the PRC regime insists on maintaining. but they need to be clearly informed that they are wrong. With regard to the intelligence authorization. this is the third time in this Congress that legislation has been brought to the House floor. The most recent delay was the result of a disagreement between the Speaker and the administration. and that has caused a significant delay. about an 8 month delay. But the third time doesnt seem to be the charm for the majority to allow an open process to consider this legislation that is very important to our national security. One Republican amendment was allowed during the first consideration of the legislation. four Republican amendments the second time. while 26 majority amendments were made in order. and now we are facing a closed rule. no amendments. The underlying bill contains changes that were negotiated with no House Republican input. The collaboration of one Republican Senator led the majority to declare that this is a bipartisan bill. That is not serious. Despite the Speakers insistence on delaying the legislation. the delay has resulted in little tangible change to the requirement to notify leaders of this body in the Intelligence committees. Instead. the administration under the bill retains authority to decide on its own which Members of Congress receive those vital briefings. The legislation also removes the prohibition on using intelligence funding to bring prisoners from Guantanamo to the United States. and it excludes a bipartisan amendment that would prohibit the granting of Miranda rights to foreign terrorists captured overseas. I know. Mr. Speaker. the majority wishes to rush to the exit to be back in their districts campaigning. but we should not pass a bill that hurts the intelligence community in the process. I reserve the balance of my time.