John Tierney: “I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this rule. I heard comments over there…”

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this rule. I heard comments over there from the chairman of the Rules Committee and others about how this was a fair rule and a fair process and how it's one nation under God and everybody trying to help everybody out, how they believe there's an opportunity for every Member to consider the matters that are in this bill. That is simply not the reality that was expressed for the nine States that suffered from fishing quota failures and threats to their fishing that were declared disasters back in 2012, when the Commerce Department said that the fishery disaster in those nine States was leading to people losing their job and the collapse of an industry, one of the oldest and most historic industries in our country. There was an opportunity for this bill to allow an amendment to be brought before the floor for a discussion about whether or not we ought not to do what the Senate did, which is put $150 million in that bill specifically for those States, specifically to deal with that aspect of disaster and move forward with that relief. This Rules Committee in this House decided that Members would not have the opportunity to take that vote. The Members in this House would not be able to work, Republicans and Democrats and Independents, to discuss a disaster that cut across at least nine States, that dealt with people who were going to lose their job, lose their industry and shatter communities.…”