Roy Blunt

Let me finish the thought, and then I will. I can give you many instances where not only did your side try to avail themselves of that right, which we never then took away, and it probably did create political concerns for our Members; but…

my friend knows as well, if not better than anybody, how to explain exactly how a Member could be motivated to do both of those things and has defended the rights of the minority for a number of years in an extraordinary way on similar…

I would also like to repeat one of the comments the gentleman made simply because we don't get much credit here or didn't get much credit for efforts we did make to control spending. And you are absolutely right, a year ago at this time…

For my friend to understand, it is not a concern about this bill. It is not a concern about what happened on that bill. It is the fact that the tabling addition may be within the rules, but extraordinary. If it is within the rules it has…

I would say to my friend, we do have a disagreement on this and I think we do see what my good friend perceives as a minor change in procedure differently because I don't think it is that at all. I would say a couple of things: one is 18…

I suggest that the use of the procedural availability to the minority wouldn't be nearly as necessary if this bill is meritorious and has a majority of votes on the floor to actually have a debate where the bill is amendable, where there…

I appreciate my friend's sense of that. But I would also say that if this bill has such broad support and such unquestioned merit, there shouldn't be any fear in having a full and open debate where the bill is amendable, where alternatives…

Well, I think to make the gentleman's point, none of them were closed, and none of the wartime supplementals came in the fashion that this one did today, and I am disappointed with that. What is the gentleman's sense on when the work that…

Well, we traditionally have allowed substitutes. I will express to the gentleman my disappointment in the rule on the bill we just passed, which as far as I know is the first closed rule on an appropriations bill since 1992. And the…

I would say that I believe that I reflect the view of this side that the debates both on the policy issues, that I frankly think may be appropriate in some other bill besides an appropriations bill, on the policy issues and the spending…

I think on appropriations bills, there are very few, if any, exceptions where those bills have not come to the floor with an open rule. The gentleman is a member of the committee and would have a sense of that, but the tradition here is…

In our Constitution, as the gentleman knows, the District was established differently than most capitals and, I am sure, has developed in a different way than was anticipated at the time. But when Presidential voting rights were extended…

I might be for whatever it took to return the voting rights for the Member of Congress to a State that is represented by two Senators which, of course, would be, I would assume, your State. I don't know that I would be for an amendment…

Well, I would just say before I move to my next question, of course, this is, as we all know, an important and at the same time controversial piece of legislation, and we would hope for a full debate and an opportunity to have a chance to…

Well, I would caution the gentleman on that theory. As high a regard as I have for Mr. Davis, and it is high, I have certainly never considered him to be the ultimate authority on the Constitution. And, of course, when you allow States to…

The language we are discussing today is designed to authorize a study by the National Park Service to determine the feasibility of creating a new Civil War battlefield at Newtonia, Missouri, or bringing those battlefield lands under the…

Actually, we made the deadline one time in 12 years, and two times in the 30 years of the budget rule.

On the issue of the rules of the House, as I understand the rule that sometimes we were able to frankly use and sometimes we weren't, on the rule that we always referred to as the Gephardt rule that was initially put in the rules by Mr…

I appreciate having the time. I appreciate the leadership that my good friend from California has shown on this issue. Madam Chairman, Members, many of us in this Chamber have been reminded over the years, some of us more frequently than…

I want to recognize others later, but he and others, as he just said, made this a real bipartisan effort for many of us in the Chamber. September 11 fundamentally changed the way we looked at the world. It also changed a number of…

While this resolution itself appears to be a resolution that would be nonbinding and have no impact, that it is clearly the first step toward defunding troops and defunding the war against these Islamic totalitarians.

I will tell you that the Member that it would have been the most impossible to convince to do anything he didn't want to do was Charlie Norwood. He was here to do what he thought was the right thing to do. It wasn't always what I thought…

Of course, I hope that as you grapple with this, you will grapple toward the determination of input into this important debate. I believe, as you do, it is a critically important debate. This is an important issue. You and I have been…

This legislation authorizes $10 billion in spending to the EPA. And, frankly, the EPA spends a lot of money that could be spent in different ways. In the EPA budget last year $47,459,367 was spent in projects in foreign countries. I would…

Frankly, our problem is that too many Members of Congress work 7 days a week. And on those times when we don't have work in Washington and can be in the district, people want to meet with Members in their office. It does give Members a…