Steny Hoyer: “the problem is, I tell the former Speaker from the Florida legislature, you do not have the courage of your convictions…”

“the problem is, I tell the former Speaker from the Florida legislature, you do not have the courage of your convictions on your side. You are not prepared to put your proposition to a democratic vote on your side. Mr. Speaker, once again this House majority is resorting to heavy- handed tactics that are designed to do one thing only, to achieve a preordained result by shutting down a full and fair debate in this House. Let me remind my colleagues what the chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. Dreier, said on this floor 12 years ago, in March 1993: ``Frankly, it seems to me that the process of representative government means that a person who represents 600,000 people here should have the right to stand up and put forth an amendment and then have it voted down if it is not supportable. We are simply asking that we comply with the standard operating rules of this House.'' Why will you not do that today? Because you do not have the confidence you have the votes. Again, today, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) and his Republican colleagues are violating their own promise to allow free and fair debates. It is another stark example of the arrogance of power and the abuse of power. This Republican majority has blocked Mr. Frank's amendment, as well as other Democratic amendments, and thus stifled, shut down, democracy and stifled debate.…”