Alcee Hastings: “Let me tell you, I heard my other colleague, Mr. Sessions, talk about all this wonderful bipartisanship that took place…”

“Let me tell you, I heard my other colleague, Mr. Sessions, talk about all this wonderful bipartisanship that took place for 12 years. Well, I have been here 14, and all I know is rancor and disagreement and very little in the way of bipartisan spirit that has been engendered here in this body. But let me talk about this business about closed rules. It was understood that in the 'Six for '06' that the rules would be closed. I assure you, and everyone else has, that there will be more open rules than you provided. You had 195 total rules in the 109th Congress. Twenty-two open rules. Twenty-two open rules, 20 of which were appropriations bills, only truly open. And you had 50 closed rules, 67 restrictive rules, 26 conference report rules and 30 procedural rules. We will match you in time.”