Dan Burton: “If this amendment were put to a vote tonight, it would pass overwhelmingly; I am just confident of that. But the…”

“If this amendment were put to a vote tonight, it would pass overwhelmingly; I am just confident of that. But the Committee on Rules chose not to make this amendment in order. Yet we are allowing the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) and those who oppose this amendment to debate this for an hour. And I would just say to my colleagues, this is nothing more than a facade. It is something that we should not be doing, because this amendment is going to be ruled nongermane. The American people overwhelmingly would support this as a loan to Iraq, a noninterest loan that could be paid back in 20 or 30 years; but at least when the oil comes in and they start making money over there, it could be repaid. So the only thing I wanted to say tonight is that I am very disappointed that this was not made in order, number one; and, number two, I am disappointed that we are debating this for an hour when everybody knows we are not going to have a chance to vote on it. It is just not right to do business that way.”