I am for a Constitution America amendment. I am not for this one as written, as I am rarely on a complicated and sensitive subject for the first draft of anything, precisely because I recognize that the Constitution is an important…

No, just as the gentleman, having made the attack on the gentleman, would not yield to him, I certainly would not yield at this point. I do want to say to my colleagues, while I generally like the bill, I also wanted some amendments, but…

I ask the gentleman, he has made a fundamental confusion here. The constitutional amendment and the Shays-Meehan bill do different things, and no one has been arguing, prior to the gentleman from Texas, and I do not underestimate the…

Oh, I am sorry. I just did not realize the gentleman was taking the seventh inning stretch so early in the evening. What we are talking about here is a recognition that this bill cannot be assailed on its merits, so we have, and here is…

That statement is, of course, nonsense. The argument that if the Shays-Meehan bill was constitutional we would not need the amendment, is simply not true. It is, of course, often the case that you will be for a bill that takes you to the…

this amendment seeks to solve a problem that does not exist and then quietly create a very serious problem. There is no constitutional prohibition against children praying in school. Yes, teachers have told children not to read the Bible…

Last year we passed overwhelmingly, unanimously, an amendment that said the United States will not spend more than $200 million per year for our share of the cost of NATO expansion. NATO expansion is one thing. But an American subsidy of…

I apologize to the House for intruding at this late date, but it did seem to me, having the elected representatives of the American people vote on whether or not American ground troops ought to stay in Bosnia until infinity was a…

the gap between reality and the description we have just heard is very, very wide. The suggestion that the national security of this country has been endangered or is in danger because of the People's Republic of China, with its relatively…

I will say this: If we vote for the previous question on the rollcall I will ask for and my colleagues vote for this rule and they vote for this bill, they will have refused the option to vote on Bosnia. So I will ask Members, have the…

Members should not think that there will not be a vote now on the previous question, because I have no choice but to emulate my colleague, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor). The gentleman threatened to vote on the previous…

I fully respect the gentleman's motives. He performs a very useful service as the leading Democratic member on the Committee on Science, and it is entirely valid for him to be bringing these concerns forward. The point I would make, not to…

I think we ought to have that down on the record, that his view is that an across-the-board cut is simply for the purpose of making a political statement and is apparently never a serious legislative answer.

let me say to the gentleman, the basic point I want to make is it seems to me very much a partial picture to talk about the reduction in the defense spending without talking about the concomitant reduction in the need for defense spending…

My question was this: You said that because we have a committee composed of intelligent, patriotic Americans, we should not be for an across-the-board cut. My recollection is that in the past, the gentleman from Illinois has voted for…

I agree that Mr. Eizenstat has done yeoman's work and that the Secretary of State has done whatever the semantic equivalent of yeoman's work is.

my colleague said that there is an exception for criminal, but let me read what might be more relevant here, the title of her amendment as she wrote it: Parent/Child Testimonial Privileges in Federal Civil and Criminal Proceedings. If the…

We do not serve the cause of justice by confusing unhappiness with particular judges and particular decisions with the functions of the judiciary. The gentleman is making a valiant effort to protect that function. I hope that in some other…

I would look forward, as I think many on our side would, and I know the ranking member would, we would love to reexamine the RICO statute across the board and deal with abuses, and on that basis I thank the gentleman and we will be…

This amendment does not affect any court action brought against prison officials that might violate the criminals' rights or even prison conditions. There are other kinds of remedies that can come into play here. What we are just saying is…

I do not think where we are talking about conscious misbehavior that violates the rights of nonviolent criminals. What we are talking about is saying if you have prison officials who are consciously abusing the rights of nonviolent felons…

I seek no quid pro quo, so I do not think it is harassment because I am not the gentleman's supervisor. I would say to the gentleman that I appreciate his talking about the relevance of respecting the wishes of millions of California…

I would say, as our friend from North Carolina had reminded us, the original reason for a three-judge court in the voting rights case had to do with the unfortunate history of judges in the South, who did not really believe in it. I do not…

No, because the gentleman is wrong in the description of his amendment. In the first place, there are nonviolent felons other than drug dealers. There are people who committed insurance fraud; there are people who cheated on their taxes…

I think the issue is not that my friend didn't go to law school, the question is in what language did he not go to law school, because I am talking about English here; not law. What I am talking about is the phrase that says you cannot…