William M. Thomas: “I thought he said he wanted to make sure the rules were honored, and here clearly he violates the rules that he wants to…”

“I thought he said he wanted to make sure the rules were honored, and here clearly he violates the rules that he wants to use to stop us. That is an example of the kind of duplicity that goes on around here. You cannot have it both ways. Either you want this side to honor the rules, then your side has to honor the rules. You use that as an argument to silence the gentleman from California [Mr. Dreier] and then you go ahead after I said I reclaim my time yet you continue talking, because you believe you have the right not to have to follow the rules, and I resent the kind of double standard that you use on the floor all the time. All I wanted to do was point out that a simple amendment offered timely to the author of the bill was not considered. I offered an amendment which solved the problem. We went through six alliterations of a change. And somebody who was not as stubborn as I was would have given up. What we finally did at the 11th hour was beat you back to a minimally acceptable language because frankly if you did not want to go to the one-square mile question of an amendment, I was willing to do that and you knew it and so I got the language that was minimally acceptable. And that is what has been done on every square mile in this desert bill.”