Melvin Watt: “in the Judiciary Committee a couple of weeks ago, we adopted a set of rules which provide that a hearing can be called…”

“in the Judiciary Committee a couple of weeks ago, we adopted a set of rules which provide that a hearing can be called only by the committee on 7 days' notice. We conducted a hearing that was not so called, and the chairman of that committee advised the committee that the word ``committee'' does not mean committee, it means chair instead and invited us to seek an opinion from the Parliamentarian which we did, and the Parliamentarian's opinion indicated that the word ``committee'' means, in fact, ``committee.'' My parliamentary inquiry is: Should we take this as an indication, in conjunction with yesterday, that we are going to make up the rules as we go along and make technical changes to suit the whims of the chairs of the committees and whoever is presiding over the House, or can we rely now on the rules as they are written?”