Junior Duck Stamp Reauthorization Amendments Act of 2005

Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, for the last 8 hours, we have been dealing with a majority leadership that has stripped out of the appropriations process and out of the conference virtually every major understanding we have had on those bills. We have had the United States Senate ram down our throats an ANWR provision. And then after we were assured in conference that there would be no language with respect to drug company indemnification, 3 hours after the conference report we get 45 pages of language which Senator Frist and the Speaker of the House demanded be included in the conference report after the conference was specifically told it would not be in there.

Now, I want to know how do we have assurances on any bill brought to this floor under unanimous consent that that same kind of nonsense is not occurring in these instances? I have a responsibility as the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee to try to defend the integrity of this House, and I will use any opportunity I can to point out how the majority leadership in this House is destroying the principle that this is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body in the world.

How long is the bill? Because, Mr. Speaker, I am tempted to demand that every single bill that comes up tonight be read in its entirety.

I would like to have the bill read.

Mr. Speaker, I will withdraw that request because I did not inform the gentleman ahead of time, and he just happened to get in the line of fire on something he should not have been involved in.

Absolutely.

I am not objecting to any bill, and I am not suggesting you did. What I am doing is using the only avenue available to me since we are operating under some very strange rules in this House to point out that even if these matters had been cleared on both sides of the aisle, there is really no way for the individual Member to protect himself if the leadership of this House is going to depart from what ought to be the custom in this place of not dictating what goes into conference reports.

With all due respect, what does not happen is that the leadership does not abuse its power routinely to alter the contents of conference reports. So I know the gentleman didn't, and I have no objection to the gentleman proceeding. But I wanted to use this as an opportunity to point out that the leadership of this House, starting with the Speaker of the House, is abdicating his responsibility to protect the integrity of this institution.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Resources be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 3179) to reauthorize and amend the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act of 1994, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

The bills that we are doing by UC right now are bills that have been before the committee for a long time. The particular bill you are objecting to is a bill that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz) has been working on for years. It is something that means a lot to him. He was sitting right behind you just a minute ago, and I am sure he would be happy to explain it to you. We are not adding anything new into the bill of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz).

If the gentleman will yield, these bills have been worked out. They have been cleared by the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall) and myself. Most of these bills are from your side of the aisle, and they are bills that have been worked on for a number of years. There is nothing in here that has changed. I understand your frustration. It happens every year when we get to the end of the session that stupid stuff happens.

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my unanimous consent request.

Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, this is one of the most preposterous situations that the House has ever been placed in. Poised to be placed before the House in just a matter of moments is a bill, the Defense appropriations bill, which is in violation of the germaneness rules of the House; it is in violation of any scope that the Defense appropriations bill has ever allowed to be considered in that bill because inside that bill is a provision which will in fact allow for the drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.

The gentleman from California is the chairman of the committee, the Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The gentleman is out here propounding. I would like to continue to be recognized.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 3179, which was received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Resources be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 3179) to reauthorize and amend the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program Act of 1994, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.