John Joseph Moakley: “again, this rule is the ultimate closed rule. They say that they allowed 8 Democratic amendments to be part of the rule…”

“again, this rule is the ultimate closed rule. They say that they allowed 8 Democratic amendments to be part of the rule, but they picked out the 8; we did not. That would be like the Republican Party picking the Democratic Members to serve on the Committee on Rules. I think we have to balance this thing out. I think that the Speaker, Newt Gingrich, on November 11, 1993, said and I quote, ``We very specifically made the decision early on in our Contract With America that we would bring up all 10 bills under open rules.'' I do not know where they are. We know the definition of rules has been changed this year from the definition that we had last year. So I would like to just put Members on notice to listen quickly and if the Committee on Rules had enough time to do the job assigned to it up in the rules Committee we would not have these two major amendments to the rule here on the floor. This is a highly complicated bill and should have been treated in the committees of authorization or else on the Committee on Rules. So I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and make in order the McCollum-Oxley-Gordon amendment. This amendment by two Republican subcommittee chairmen and one moderate Democrat will raise the cap on damages to $1 million, and as the Republican leadership knows very well, will ultimately pass if it is made in order.”