Debbie Dingell: “I do, however, rise in opposition to the conference report, and very frankly, I rise in opposition to the rather sorry…”

“I do, however, rise in opposition to the conference report, and very frankly, I rise in opposition to the rather sorry process by which this document has been presented to this body. Last month the House appointed 5 Members from the other side of the aisle and three Democrats as its conferees on this legislation. There have been no meetings by the conferees. The staff of the Republican conferees have had extensive conversations with their Senate counterparts. No Democratic staff members were included or informed; not even the staff of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), the chief Democratic sponsor of the House bill. To add insult to this injury, Republican staff informed us the day before this report was filed that the only Democratic amendment adopted by the conference committee, the DeGette amendment, which required the SEC to monitor and report to the Congress on the consequences of this legislation, had been unceremoniously dropped, without any justification that I can discern. Moreover, the original conference report included, at the behest of the Senate, a rather curious nongermane study of the U.S. sheep and wool industry.”