Date: 2007-12-06
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the gentleman from Vermont. my friend. Mr. WELCH. for the time. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. fairness. openness. sunshine. transparency. bipartisanship. those are just some of the words the new majority used to describe the way they were going to run the 110th Congress. Today. just as we have seen during much of the new majoritys stewardship of the House during this year. those have been. at best. hollow promises. The rule ive are considering is being called something similar to a standard conference report rule by the majority. Now. Mr. Speaker. normally considering a conference report under such a rule would not cause much controversy. but this is not a conference report. It never went through the usual conference process. The majority never named conferees. never held a conference meeting nor gave the minority the chance to offer a motion to instruct conferees. Last night in the Rules Committee. we met until late. We heard from our friends on the other side the aisle that. well. -it is not a conference report because Republicans in the Senate didnt want a conference. But Mr. BARTON was there. He is. as you know. the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. and he said "I certainly wanted to be part of it. I wanted to be part of the conference." So. again. the blame was on the Republicans. even though. last I heard in November. it was the Democrats that won the majority in the House and in the Senate. During their campaign. the new majority promised that they would allow for regular order for legislation. They even put their campaign promise in a book called "A New Direction for America." and yet they have consistently broken their campaign promises. And today is no exception. Now. the rule specifically breaks two promises made by the majority during the campaign. First. they said in "A New Direction for America." "HouseSenate conference committees should hold regular meetings at least weekly of all conference committee members. All duly appointed conferees should be informed of the schedule of conference committee activities in a timely manner and given ample opportunity for input and debate as decisions are made toward final bill language." Now. why is it important. this difference between a conference report and what is being brought forth today? Again. the majority is saying that because the Senate couldnt go to conference. they were using this procedure in lieu of a conference. of a real conference. Now. debate is structured like a conference report. and they are trying to argue that we are treating this bill like a conference report. But here is how this process differs:- Republican Members were never given an opportunity to review the entire text. as conferees would have been. this bill is being considered with less than the 24 hours promised by the new majority for conference reports. there is no list of earmarks in the bill. as would be required in a conference report. and there is no list of airdropped earmarks. as would be required in a conference report. That is why it is important. what we are dealing with. It seems somewhat technical. but it is extremely important that a mechanism is being used that has circumvented the conference process. Circumventing the conference committee not only blocks Members from debating and amending the legislation in the committee. but it blocks the minority from using one of the few legislative tools at our disposal. which is. obviously. as I have said. the motion to instruct conferees. Mr. Speaker. the one time we considered such a rule in the 109th Congress. my colleague on the Rules Committee.