On the recordJanuary 23, 2013
I thank my chairman for yielding. I used to come to this podium, Mr. Speaker, and say I'm just a House freshman, but this is what I think about things. I'm now a House sophomore. It's been 2 years and 1 month since I arrived here; and if you told me 2 years ago when I arrived that we were going to be bringing five-page pieces of legislation to this floor for up-or-down votes by this body, I wouldn't have believed it because I've watched the way this House has operated for over a decade. I see these bills--and Mr. Speaker, you've seen them too--these bills that folks have to carry down here on a dolly, those bills that they drop them down here on the rostrum with just a thump. Folks can't read those bills; folks can't analyze those bills; folks can't digest those bills. But this one that we have today deals with an incredibly complicated topic, the debt ceiling, an incredibly controversial topic--how it is that the House and the Senate get their business done--and yet we bring it in five pages that every Member of this body has had a chance to read and digest, every Member of this body. We had a hearing on it in the Rules Committee yesterday. And here on the floor today we're going to debate this bill not just with one committee of jurisdiction, with the Ways and Means Committee getting time, but with two committees of jurisdiction, the Ways and Means Committee getting time and the House Administration Committee getting time. You know, it's unusual, Mr.…
