Richard Gephardt: “this is a sorry day in the House of Representatives, and what I am afraid is going to be a sorry week. Ten years of…”

“this is a sorry day in the House of Representatives, and what I am afraid is going to be a sorry week. Ten years of studies and work and comment are being swept aside with 1 hour of debate in our House of Representatives. This is not right, and it is not the right way to do this. It is not right for American workers who will be seriously affected and degraded by this decision that we are making tonight. Mr. Speaker, I cannot understand why we could not spend the last 3 hours that we have been in this building at least on this floor talking about what went on over the last 10 years. We could not find it within ourselves in this House of Representatives to spend the last 3 hours when we were in recess to be on this floor at least discussing this matter. We know there is a disagreement about this, that is legitimate, but to not allow the Members of this House to be out here, when the law that calls for this procedure says that we are going to have 10 hours of debate, when we did not have another thing to do on this floor, to not allow this debate to go on is reprehensible. It sure is not bipartisan. This is an issue that affects real people, people that work on computers, poultry workers, factory workers, and what we are saying is that the science says that these regulations are the right thing to do.”