Phil Gingrey: “Mr. Chairman, what I would suggest is that very easily a package of these earmarks, I don't know how many are going to…”

“Mr. Chairman, what I would suggest is that very easily a package of these earmarks, I don't know how many are going to be put in the final conference report; if there are 30,000 earmarks, maybe 15,000 of them in the aggregate in these 11 bills will be published in the Congressional Record and then eventually airdropped in the conference report. Well, it seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that a bill or resolution through the Appropriations Committee could come to the floor of this House under an open rule, and let us at that point take each one of those earmarks, maybe specified for each of the 11 appropriations bills, and then have our opportunity to vote up or down. I have been listening to the debate, again, like I said, for a couple or 3 or 4 hours, and nobody has made that suggestion. So I want to try to improve the process, Mr. Chairman, and I want to make that suggestion to the Democratic leadership and to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. It is not too late to do the right thing. We feel like you have done the wrong thing and shut the process down. It is not what the people want, but it is not too late to see the error.”