Steny Hoyer: “first of all, let me respond to the gentleman from Illinois. These issues were raised over 2 years ago, not last night…”

“first of all, let me respond to the gentleman from Illinois. These issues were raised over 2 years ago, not last night, not the night before, or the night before that. The issues we raise in this legislation were raised 2 years ago, and 4 years ago, and we all know that. They are legitimate issues, and they will be issues that will be fought out in the future in front of the Supreme Court. But this amendment is not appropriate on this piece of legislation at this time, not because we do not subscribe to the first amendment, not because we do not want to ensure that the Constitution is followed in our legislation, but because we all know that it is time to act, time to adopt this reform, and not the time to pretend that we are doing things that we do not have the power to do. Vote this amendment down.”