Harold Volkmer: “I did not come here to talk about this. I listened to the gentleman from Florida, and we have a couple more from Florida…”

“I did not come here to talk about this. I listened to the gentleman from Florida, and we have a couple more from Florida maybe going to speak on the same issue, and I hear the criticism of the President on the Cuban situation, yet I do not hear them say one thing of what they would do different than what the President has done, not one. The gentleman from Florida did not mention one thing. I am just waiting to hear what the rest of them have to say. I wonder how many of them want to send troops into Cuba. Should they, should they not? They are from Florida, let them say. What I really came here to talk about is the autocratic running of this House of Representatives. This is not a democracy in this House any longer. When I say 'democracy,' I mean a small 'D.' At times back in my 20 years or 19 years before this, we had farm bills come to this House and every one of them, in 1977, 1981, 1985, in 1990, every one of them had an open rule. All amendments that were germane and had been printed in the Record before we took up the bill were eligible to be debated and voted upon. Now, what is the Committee on Rules of this autocratic leadership under his excellency, the Speaker Gingrich, going to do this afternoon with the rule on this year's farm bill? Should be 1995; it is 1996. They are already late. They are going to restrict the amendments. There have been 74 amendments noticed to the Committee on Rules.…”