Debbie Dingell: “I am hard put to explain why such a punitive and harsh rule is before this body at this time. This is a bad rule for a…”

“I am hard put to explain why such a punitive and harsh rule is before this body at this time. This is a bad rule for a bad piece of legislation. It establishes bad precedence. It curtails the rights of the Members to adequately debate the measure before us, and it confines Members to a straitjacket with regard to the amendment process, the opportunity to speak and to explain these amendments. It is, all in all, a bad rule, and it should be rejected by the House. It permits only Members on the Republican side to offer a motion to rise, it permits only Members on the Republican side to have a motion which would require the House to rise and report the bill back to the House with such amendments as may have been adopted. It requires that amendments which are offered may be only debatable for 10 minutes, 5 minutes for the proponents, 5 minutes for the opponents. Legislative amendments which would deal with fuel efficiency standards for appliances and buildings would get 5 minutes on each side. Those are important matters and they were debated in this House for a number of hours at an earlier time. The action which is being taken here is not being taken by a legislative committee, but rather by the Committee on Appropriations.”