John Conyers: “I want to admit that we are now on the horns of a dilemma in terms of the rule. We have a rule that presents an obstacle…”

“I want to admit that we are now on the horns of a dilemma in terms of the rule. We have a rule that presents an obstacle course of poison pills designed to drag the bill down. Virtually all of the amendments that have been allowed by the Committee on Rules are hostile, in many cases unrelated, amendments. For example, the Coburn amendment is an anti-choice amendment that would prevent doctors from making referrals for abortion-related services for victims of rape and incest. The Cox amendment is an insult to the collective bargaining idea and would constitute the first-ever Federal right-to-work mandate on the States. Neither of these amendments have anything to do with the underlying bill, of course, and the Committee on Rules have waived all points of order to leave these poison bills intact. We know the game. It is to split 220 cosponsors of a very important and fine bill. And so my solution that I propose to my colleagues tonight is that since we have been gamed, I am going to oppose the previous question on the adoption of the rule and ask the Members to support me in opposition to the previous question so that I can offer an amendment that would remove the Cox amendment and also make in order the amendment submitted by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood) to the Committee on Rules. This would allow us to have a clean debate on the underlying legislation, free of the poison pill amendments.”