Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida, my good friend, Mr. Diaz-Balart, for yielding me the time; and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a bit of…
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida, my good friend, Mr. Diaz-Balart, for yielding me the time; and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a bit of trepidation about this rule and this process, which clearly circumvents the regular order of business of the House. I can find no reasonable explanation or sensible justification for going around the well-established rules of this body to bring the transportation appropriations bill to the floor today in this manner.
The majority has been so kind in explaining why it believes that this martial law is needed. Unfortunately, the majority's explanation has fallen a bit short on convincing this side of the aisle that we need to do this today and not tomorrow.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why this bill must come to the floor in this manner. It is, after all, only Tuesday. You would think that after controlling the House for 11 years that my friends in the majority would have figured out how to bring a nonemergency appropriations bill to the floor under regular order. Indeed, there is simply no good reason to handle these bills outside the normal parameters of the way the House should conduct its business.
Moreover, when the House does operate this way, it effectively curtails our rights and responsibilities as serious legislators. When the leadership of this body bypasses the rules of regular order, as it is attempting to again do today, it really does discredit this great institution in which all of us are privileged to serve.
Realize, Mr. Speaker, my concerns are not content but rather process. This martial law rule sends a false message to the American people that this is what the Framers intended when they envisioned the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives ought to be a body of thought and deliberation, where America's greatest needs are given proper consideration. Under the majority, however, thought and deliberation have been replaced by rubber stamps and obvious disorganization. This is not a good thing, and it is a disservice to the American people.
I really do urge my colleagues to reject continued attempts to circumvent regular order in the House of Representatives.
I reserve the balance of my time.
I was trying to allow that we go a bit longer only for the reason that the next agenda matter is not present for us. I won't make an accusation that that allows that my friends in the majority are having difficulty in organizing their efforts.
My good friend from Florida, for example, just commented that this has been a measure, or this is a measure, that was passed and that it has been known since June 9; and at the very same time, at the outset, you began by saying that we are in the process of determining what we are going to do before we report out the rule.
You know, we use a lot of beltway language here, and for a long time I didn't believe that there was a beltway mentality. The tragedy is now I, as well as others that I know, have become a part of it. Let me say what I am talking about.
When I say I am not talking about content, I am not talking about the substance of the transportation measure that is so critical to this Nation. What I really am talking about is the process where the Nation's representatives get an opportunity to speak on issues of vital concern. So, then, when we say that this rule circumvents regular order, as a general rule Jane and Joe Lunchbucket don't have a clue what we are talking about. So perhaps it would be helpful, since we have a little time, to explain to them what regular order would normally require for a nonemergency appropriations measure.
The rule that we are getting ready to present this transportation measure under also called for same-day consideration of legislation providing for the Department of Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and independent agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes. What it does is it circumvents one of the rules, which is 6(a) of rule XIII. That generally doesn't mean a thing to the American public, but let me tell them what it means.
That rule requires a two-thirds vote in order to consider a rule on the same day reported from the Rules Committee. Two-thirds of the Members of this House would have to do that. What we are doing with this rule is we are waiving that two-thirds requirement and we are saying it is all right, you can bring up any of these things under the same-day rule because it doesn't require two-thirds of the Members.
I can assure you if two-thirds of the membership were required in order for us to be able to proceed along regular order, it might not be difficult to achieve; but it would be fair for us to function that way. So we have ignored the process repeatedly here in the House of Representatives. And what that does is it creates a situation where Members in the House of Representatives who represent constituents don't get an opportunity to have their measures considered by the Rules Committee or by the House under regular order, thereby precluding them from having an opportunity to actually receive the best interests of their representative as it pertains to issues that are germane to their interests in their locales.
That is a long way to describe that when you waive the process, you waive the rights of the people that we represent to have their representatives present their views here on the floor of the House of Representatives and to have this great deliberative body work its will. Therein lies the rub with this particular kind of process.
It even has a distinct name: martial law. That sounds like something that is forcing something or requiring something to be done under the aegis of authoritarian rule. That is not right, and that is what we complain of, those of us that have the opportunity and privilege to do so in the Rules Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
