George Miller: “I was reminded when the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) talked about people going in and out of this building…”

“I was reminded when the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) talked about people going in and out of this building, people go to the Federal buildings very often seeking help, compassion and understanding. Very often their arguments are not recognized with dignity. Hopefully people will understand that this building and the people who work in it, it is named for a man who gave dignity to people's arguments and concerns, even when he so strongly disagreed with them. Ron Dellums used to say that he arrived in Congress as an Afro-top bell-bottom militant from Berkley, and he rose to become chairman of the Committee on National Security. One of the amazing things was after he became chairman of the Committee on National Security, where there were serious disagreements about military policy, national policies, the future, procurements and all this, the people who disagreed with him so much on the issues commented how fairly they had been treated by him in those hearings and how fairly they had been treated in front of the Committee on Rules, because he believed that people should be able to and that this body could only function if people were allowed to bring amendments to the floor and have a free and fair and open debate on those issues.”