Harold Volkmer

First of all, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, I want to make sure everyone is aware that it is our intention to hold hearings in the next couple of months on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and…

I quite disagree with the gentleman from New Mexico that what I said before, it does not change maybe what BATF is doing at the present. But I still say, because they can go on reasonable belief that what they are doing is right without a…

Just bust the doors down and go in and take the guns and if they find something illegal, they say ``Hey, we gotcha.'' And if they do not find anything illegal, they say sorry. Sometimes they do not even say that, folks. Right now they have…

Under this bill, Mr. Chairman, after that informant had told that agent that information, he could have gone down there and took guns without a search warrant. For that reason, I say if you want to protect your gun owners from these rogue…

I wish to take this time to thank wholeheartedly the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers] for offering this amendment on my behalf. I would just like to have plenty of time. Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out that the gentleman from…

What did that do? It did the same thing for all law enforcement as what this does for BATF.

I just want to alert the Members that I will be having an amendment to this bill that would exempt the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agencies from the provisions of this bill. BATF has been the biggest rogue, Rambo outfit that…

If they have a warrant; if they have a warrant. If they do not have a warrant, as your bill permits it, they do not have to have a warrant to break into that house, and if the warrant is defective, even under the Supreme Court, which I…

So 35 people out of this whole country would make the decision on spending priorities under the Republican version?

Over whatever period. So that is basically a closed rule. It is; gentleman, it is a closed rule, gentleman. And you are telling people that even if you have an amendment in the Record by that time, if we would take 3 hours on a substitute…

I view the House of Representatives as one of the most respected bodies and institutions in this world, maybe not quite to the extent that I do my church and my home, but it reaches right up there with them. This is the greatest…

What influence did Rupert Murdoch have in relation to the writing of the book and to the book contract and how much the Speaker is going to get? I do not believe that Teddy Roosevelt, Al Gore, or anybody else had any types of contract with…

as I have reviewed this over the years, as the House has deliberated on the line-item veto--and last year we came to the conclusion that basically the substitute the gentleman is now offering was the one that should become law--the one…

But in there there was a provision for the President having this basically same identical authority. That was a Democratic bill, but basically a bipartisan bill. But it was sponsored by, primarily, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Stenholm]…

I was anxious, and I wish that the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] who started this discourse, would have stayed here because I wanted to commend the gentleman because he is accurate, and we are not without sin on this side. He is…

my amendment addresses the definition stage of the bill with regard to Federal intergovernmental mandates. Under that definition, a mandate is any provision in legislation, statute, or regulation that would impose an enforceable duty upon…

what concerned me a little bit is listening to the debate on the previous rule, and I have not heard the debate on this mixup when I just walked in, but I was a little bit concerned, and some of us who may have that concern, it may not…

I do not mind that, if that is the way it is going to go, not only on these types of bills, but also the controversial bills. It is not this bill and not the next bill. If you want to do open rules, I could care less, because I know there…

Do we want to build more prison out there so that we can put these crooks away and keep them there where they should be, or do we want to make the States put an 85 percent truth-in-sentencing law? Which one?

today I rise to welcome the Governors of our great Nation who have come to Washington to discuss the problems that are overburdening our Government and our country. Their topic is welfare reform. To that, Mr. Speaker, today I am…

I call on the Ethics Committee to begin an immediate in-depth investigation into the deal-of-the-century book deal. The Ethics Committee must review this contract and possible conflicts immediately. I am sure they will find the necessity…

I have supported it. I am a cosponsor of the amendment of the gentleman from Colorado and the gentleman from Texas. Some of us have struggled and fought. We came close, 9 votes one year, 12 votes, if I remember right, last year. We may see…

Mr. Chairman, I am not going to take a long time on this amendment, but I think as the gentleman from Pennsylvania has said, it is one that is very, very important. What my major concern is, is that for the last several days, at least…

in this body as well as the other body we have people with different ideas. Ideas are what make legislation. We are seeing that with the unfunded mandate bill. That is all it is, a question of ideas. We are going to see it with the…

I would like to reiterate, and I think the gentleman from Pennsylvania, one of the cosponsors of the amendment, has really pointed out that this way of doing legislation is a very poor way of doing legislation. We should not do legislation…