To thank the gentlelady for being with me on the floor today. I'll say that we sometimes have some controversy in the Rules Committee, Mr. Speaker. There's a lot of responsibility that lies in the Rules Committee. With 435 folks here in…

I thank you, and I thank the majority leader for allowing me to utilize the time today. Mr. Speaker, a lot of folks, as votes have finished for the day, have headed for their flights back home. A lot of folks are back in their offices…

As a freshman here on the House floor just 2 years ago, it does my heart good to see my freshman colleagues coming down from the other side of the aisle, because I came down with that same vision 2 years ago to work together to address the…

I'd like to say to my friend that I endorse, Madam Speaker, his request to do away with stale political gamesmanship. I would put in the stale political gamesmanship category making a point of order against an unfunded mandate in the bill…

I asked, What would it have taken to get that Joint Select Committee to succeed? Because that's why we're here in sequestration; that's why we're dealing with these things. He said he did not know what more we could have done to find…

I actually asked that question--or a version of it--of the distinguished gentleman from Maryland, the minority whip, last night.

By direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 66 and ask for its immediate consideration. The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 66 Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order…

House Resolution 66, this rule that we're considering today, will allow for debate on the underlying bill, H.R. 273. This rule that we're considering today is a little bit unusual in that it not only allows for the underlying resolution…

For the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida, my friend, Mr. Hastings, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is…

To say the gentleman believes we're wasting the American people's time. An equally precious commodity is the American people's money. I talked earlier about the $10,000 per American inhabitant. A lot of folks do their numbers by American…

As highly unorthodox as that is, my great respect for my friend requires that I do.

At this time it is my great pleasure to yield 2 minutes to a good friend here, Mr. Wittman.