Melvin Watt: “I have very strong feelings about the bill itself. It is an unprecedented piece of legislation. It is an…”

“I have very strong feelings about the bill itself. It is an unprecedented piece of legislation. It is an unconstitutional piece of legislation, and it has some severe unintended consequences. I do not want to talk about the bill in this rules debate. I want to talk about democracy and how democracy works. We had a bunch of amendments to try to address some of the concerns that we had about this bill. We took those amendments and we presented them up on the third floor to the Rules Committee, and the Rules Committee said, no, we will not allow you to have a debate on those amendments. They might improve the bill. They might allow the President to sign a bill into law if some of them were passed. They might enlighten the general public. They might foster democracy, but you are not going to be allowed to have a debate on those amendments. That is what this rule is about. It is about democracy and how democracy works in this House.”