Alcee Hastings: “as I said at the outset, this is a good bill and I plan to support it, but a good bill could have been made better had…”

“as I said at the outset, this is a good bill and I plan to support it, but a good bill could have been made better had amendments of Members in this body on both sides been made in order. We are not the workaholic Congress around here, and we have the time to undertake to do things that are critical for the American public. I am absolutely convinced that we could have allowed most, if not all, of the amendments that were included. I have said on other occasions that my colleagues in the majority were championed by some of the best skilled legislators in 1992 and 1994. One of them, a deceased Member, former chairman of the Committee on Rules, a good friend of mine that I traveled actively with and dearly miss him, was Gerald Solomon. Others of course, former Speaker Gingrich and the distinguished Robert Walker. I saw them on this floor repeatedly saying that the big problem that existed with Democrats at that time was that they were operating on closed and restrictive rules. I guess what changed here is the majority, and there are some who still have not got it, and that is, that people in this body represent all of the people in America. Until such time as we open all of the rules to Members who are desirous of offering germane amendments, we will be having restrictive and closed rules and shutting out, blocking out a part of the individuals who represent upwards of 600,000 to 800,000 people each.…”