Lynn N. Rivers: “I wanted to make sure the gentleman understood this issue in context. The argument seems to be that only people who are…”

“I wanted to make sure the gentleman understood this issue in context. The argument seems to be that only people who are concerned about the constitutionality of their bill would disagree to a nonseverability clause. But a very quick review of legislation in this Congress finds, as best I can tell, only four bills, only four bills that had been printed and distributed without a severability clause. Mr. Chairman, I also find that if we are concerned that people who promote the idea of having a severability clause really are not clear about the constitutionality, I find that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Canady), who is the chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, put a severability clause in his Religious Liberties Protection Act. And the gentlewoman from Kentucky, who has argued this very vigorously who was an original cosponsor of House Resolution 456 for drug testing, also put a severability clause. So if there are only four, why are we suddenly directing all of this wrath?”