Ed Whitfield: “I want to thank Chairman Bonilla for yielding. He is most gracious to yield to someone who will speak against the…”

“I want to thank Chairman Bonilla for yielding. He is most gracious to yield to someone who will speak against the conference report and will reluctantly vote against the conference report. It is not every committee chairman that would yield to anyone that would do that, particularly when you are talking about an appropriation bill. I rise today in opposition reluctantly to this, but I do so primarily because of an issue of process that I have become more and more concerned about in my 11 years in the U.S. Congress. This conference report was filed last night. The Rules Committee met quickly after that, developing the rule for consideration of the conference report. The conference report violated rule XXII of the House and violated rule XXVIII of the Senate in that section 798 was included in this conference report which was not a part of the House bill, was not a part of the Senate bill, and specifically changes substantive law. Yet as is usually the case, the Rules Committee issues a rule waiving all points of order, which actually does raise a question of why does the House need rules, why does the Senate need rules, if we are always waiving those rules and Members never have an opportunity to bring an issue up. Mr. Speaker, 798 is not about horse slaughter, and we have heard a lot about horse slaughter. I will admit I am one of those in the House that is making an effort to do what we can to stop the slaughter of horses for human consumption in Europe.…”