JOHN LINDER: “The language the gentlewoman used, that this is taking away the right to sue, has an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about…”

“The language the gentlewoman used, that this is taking away the right to sue, has an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about it. The gentleman from Michigan who says this is the most egregious rule he has ever seen has a very short memory, because less than a year ago on the assault weapons ban, no amendments were allowed from either side at any time, a totally closed rule, an up-or-down vote. As a matter of fact, this is not a 6-hour debate, this is a 12-hour debate. We have taken out the time for voting which your side has consistently asked us to do in the Committee on Rules. Six hours of actual debating on amendments. Let me just say that the gentleman from Michigan was debating not this rule. This rule is about 2 hours of general debate. He was debating tomorrow's rule. Tomorrow's rule, he was speaking about with the time frames. As a matter of fact, tomorrow's rule has eight amendments in order from Democrats, six from Republicans and one bipartisan. I think it was just about March or May of last year when we were given the choice of voting up or down on the assault weapons ban with no opportunities for amendments. I think this is hardly more egregious than that.”