Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, this is certainly not the open rule that we had been promised, and while it is not entirely closed, we are all disappointed in the restrictive nature of this resolution for the consideration of a measure so momentous as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. As has been well noted by the gentleman from Massachusetts, the history of the manner in which constitutional amendments have been considered, clearly shows that the use of the open rule is the wisest approach, and the one that appears to have been most often used when the threat of a discharge petition was not pending, as is currently the case. Even more disappointing, under this rule no perfecting amendments are allowed. If even a few of the proposed perfecting amendments had been made in order, we could have accommodated most of the major concerns about the legislation, and given Members of the House a chance to express their feelings on a number of very important additional issues--issues which are precluded from considering under this proposed rule.”