Maxwell Frost: “this rule is a travesty, but certainly no surprise. In the years since the Republican Party took control of this body…”

“this rule is a travesty, but certainly no surprise. In the years since the Republican Party took control of this body, their leadership has made a concerted effort to strip away the rights of Members of the House of Representatives, bit by bit by bit. This rule is just more of the same, and every Member of this House who believes in the small ``d'' democratic process should vote to defeat it. The Republican Party's leadership has been nothing short of disingenuous about the debate on this supplemental. Mr. Speaker, this has been anything but an open process. There have been some very important discussions on the floor, but those discussions have been truncated. Over 120 amendments were noticed to this bill, yet, despite the fact that there is obviously so much interest on the part of Members of the House in this $87 billion bill, the Republican leadership is now cutting off the last opportunity to bring over half of those amendments to the floor. Mr. Speaker, I voted in favor of the resolution authorizing the President's action in Iraq. I still believe my vote was the right vote to take. But, if I recall correctly, one of the many reasons the President and the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State gave the American people about why we should take military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein was to bring democracy to the Iraqi people. Quite frankly, I think it is time we bring democracy back to the United States House of Representatives.”