Melvin Watt: “as masterful as the chairman who spoke on behalf of the Committee on Armed Services is, he cannot speak for the…”

“as masterful as the chairman who spoke on behalf of the Committee on Armed Services is, he cannot speak for the Committee on Armed Services. We bring a major substantive change to this bill to the floor, give it 10 minutes of debate, 5 minutes per side; never has been in the Committee on Armed Services. The chairman of the committee comes out and says I am here to speak for the committee. What about all the other people on the Committee on Armed Services? When are they going to have an opportunity to weigh in on this major substantive provision to this bill? That is what I am talking about when I say we have subverted the processes of this House using parliamentary procedures. Basically, what we have done is deprive the minority of the Committee on Armed Services of the right to weigh in on this important issue. The chairman waived jurisdiction. They did not bring it into the committee, and they did not do anything. There are 60 Members. Fifty-nine of them have not spoken.”