William Tauzin: “I have great sympathy for those who believe this bill is moving too fast this session, but I remind my colleagues that I…”

“I have great sympathy for those who believe this bill is moving too fast this session, but I remind my colleagues that I offered this bill two Congresses ago. I crafted this bill two Congresses ago with the hopes we could have hearings two Congresses ago. We got no hearings. I refiled it last year, 182 Members of the Congress last year cosponsored it; 67 Democrats. And we could get no hearings until the very last week or two of the session when it was too late for us to take any action on the bill. There were 4 years for this Congress to move on this bill if we had wanted to take that time. But for 4 years, we could never even get this bill moving, except finally a series of hearings right at the end of the session. We have had hearings again this year. We have had markups, subcommittee and the full committee. We will have a full and active debate the next day and a half, with 8 hours for folks to offer amendments under this modified open rule. And I am excited that we will finally get a chance to fix something that desperately needs fixing. The old rule that 'If it ain't broke, do not fix it' not only applies here, it applies in buckets. When 93 percent of these cases settle, most of them at 10 cents on a dollar, we have a system that is ultimately broke. We have a system made for the attorneys.”