Melvin Watt: “Mr. Speaker, I find myself in a very interesting position today, one that in the 6 years that I have been in this House…”

“Mr. Speaker, I find myself in a very interesting position today, one that in the 6 years that I have been in this House is unprecedented. Because I am here defending the work product of the committee of jurisdiction in this case. On May 20, 1998, the full Committee on the Judiciary took a vote on a bill that I will be offering as a substitute to the bill that we are considering here on the floor, and we passed that bill out of the full Committee on the Judiciary by a vote of 23 to 4. We got to that bill after going through the subcommittee that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) chairs and on which I am the ranking member, and working out some details in the subcommittee, and we continued to work out further details as we moved from the subcommittee to the full committee. And by the time we got to the full committee, the full Committee on the Judiciary, we had broad bipartisan support for a bill. And that is the bill that I am here offering as a substitute to what is being offered on the floor today.”