John Joseph Moakley: “Mr. Speaker, here is another reason to oppose this rule. In the Committee on Commerce, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.…”

“Mr. Speaker, here is another reason to oppose this rule. In the Committee on Commerce, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley), chairman of the subcommittee on Finance and Hazardous Materials and I offered an amendment to prohibit entities that sell insurance from discriminating against victims of domestic violence by selling, underwriting, or paying insurance policies by using domestic violence as an underwriting criteria. This was an amendment unanimously supported in the committee, passed the House last year. It is very important. We should have voted on it by itself. Unfortunately, the amendment was not made in order by itself and was included as part of a very controversial amendment offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley). What we are talking about here is trying to help businesses and trying to help consumers. Instead, we are just getting too cute by half. I think what we need to do is send this rule back to the Committee on Rules so they can get all of these amendments straight, and they can benefit consumers as well as businesses. Then we can all vote for the bill. We can send it on to conference, and we can adopt it.”