Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “Mr. Chairman, I rise as a Member of the Committee on Appropriations, having served with the gentleman from Florida…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise as a Member of the Committee on Appropriations, having served with the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young), who was very dignified as this Committee on Appropriations spent over 3 days, 14 hours on the first day, trying to bring to this House of Representatives a supplemental bill to really react and respond to our war on terrorism. Many of us, over 60 of us who sit on that committee, vowed that we would do the work necessary. We put 20 hours-plus on the bill over 3 days, and brought a bill to this floor, an emergency supplemental. I am appalled with what the Committee on Rules has done with our work. It has emasculated the committee system in this House. But what we have before us is not the bill that came out of the Committee on Appropriations. It is not the bill we were told was an emergency and had to be passed right away to address the war on terrorism. What we have before us now is a bill with all kinds of amendments added onto it, and all kinds of things we cannot amend as Members of this House that do not address the emergency before us. This bill will increase the debt limit without a vote of this House.”