John Conyers: “this is the first I heard of that, because everybody told me this was a done deal. It was so put together that we did…”

“this is the first I heard of that, because everybody told me this was a done deal. It was so put together that we did not even need to close the rule up in the Committee on Rules. They gave us an open rule, as many amendments as we want on something that is going through unanimously, I guess. But, no, I understand that that may not be the case, and so I just want to remind everybody that this generous Committee on Rules that allowed us an open rule, as many amendments as we want, is the same Committee on Rules in the 104th Congress that on about 45 other occasions, when we begged them for an open rule on things that were slightly more important than this, there was no way we could get it because the Democrats on the committee were outvoted every single time. But now on this, how many amendments do we have? Not a single one. But it is an open rule, showing, I guess, that the chairman and the Republican dominated Committee on Rules is doing us a real big favor on May 1, 1996.”