Barney Frank: “First, as with regards to the tragedy, of course we all come together. But the fact that we can celebrate tragedy does…”

“First, as with regards to the tragedy, of course we all come together. But the fact that we can celebrate tragedy does not mean that we put aside, in a democratic body, our legitimate differences. This is not simply a small mistake, but it is a small mistake in a bill that is about as partisan as it gets. To make a plea for bipartisanship with this excessively partisan bill that is being put through in such a procedurally inappropriate fashion with major concerns about every aspect of the Federal Government, given 10 minutes of debate at 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock at night to be voted on, no, that's a mistake. {time} 1010 Secondly, as the gentleman from New Jersey and I have pointed out, it is not simply that a mistake was made, but it's a mistake that would easily have been caught earlier if people had read the bill. And I stress this because when we did some of the other legislation-- financial reform, health care--there was constant repetition of the argument on the Republican side ``You haven't read the bill. Nobody's read the bill.'' Well, you haven't read this bill, apparently, Mr. Speaker. At least not very many people have read it. And blaming the staff, I never like to do that, because the staff prepares things, but Members sign off on it. So, yes, we will proceed to this debate, but we are talking here about an indication, an overly broad bill given too little time for consideration. People on the other side--Members, apparently, didn't read it.…”