John Joseph Moakley: “I do not know how anybody could say that something that affects 130,000 working people, that has not had one minute of…”

“I do not know how anybody could say that something that affects 130,000 working people, that has not had one minute of hearing in the House committees or the Senate committees, that was put into the conference committee, is a technical correction. I would like to take a look at that dictionary to see what technical correction really means. Mr. Speaker, this is a terrible thing. This is a terrible affront to the working men and women of America, that this type of proviso could be inserted into this otherwise great bill. For anybody to jeopardize the millions of Americans that fly every year, the protections that are put in this bill are jeopardized by putting this proviso in there. I think we would do best to defeat the rule, then extract this amendment, and I am sure that the conference committee, it probably would go through without a negative vote. I just think that the stakes are too high. Regardless of what party the gentleman is in who inserted this amendment in the Senate, I just think it is the wrong place. This should be debated before it gets to the conference committee report. This should have been debated in the House. This should have been debated in the Senate. This should not end up on our doorstep, at the 11th hour, when we are trying to get out of this place. Mr. Speaker, I would hope my colleagues would join me in voting against the rule, so we can strip out this terrible provision.”