Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “I want to elaborate on what my colleague is saying, because some people might think that this is unusual and that it is…”

“I want to elaborate on what my colleague is saying, because some people might think that this is unusual and that it is a rare occurrence that they would close a bill and not allow us to offer any amendments. This is just my first year, but I wanted to just check on what the Republican leadership's track record is in terms of allowing us the input that they say they so desperately want us to provide. There have been about 85 bills, as of last Thursday, which was November 3, 85 bills that we have considered on this floor that were amendable. There are lots of bills we consider that are under what is called the suspension calendar, and we vote those up or down. Those are the noncontroversial bills. But 85 bills. Of the 85 bills that were potentially amendable, 38 of them were given restrictive rules where there were severe limitations on the amendments that were allowed to be offered. Severe. Fifteen of those bills were closed, like the one that we are considering tomorrow, meaning no additional amendments were allowed. No amendments at all were allowed. Plus three additional closed rules that were included in another bill. Now, there have been, of the 85, 12 open rules, meaning anyone can offer an amendment, but 11 of those were appropriations bills, spending bills, which we always are allowed to offer amendments to. So what it boils down to, and 10 were conference reports and 10 were procedural.…”