Melvin Watt: “the issue that we are debating is whether to give the majority martial law authority. I think my colleagues and the…”

“the issue that we are debating is whether to give the majority martial law authority. I think my colleagues and the public should know what martial law authority is. It is absolute authority to control when to bring something to the floor without even allowing the Members of Congress to read what is being brought to the floor. I was thinking about it, I really could not think of anybody I would less like to give martial law authority to than the majority in this House, particularly after we have been here all day. We came into session at 10 a.m. this morning, stayed in for 45 minutes, and then recessed subject to the call of the Chair, and we have been sitting around in our offices all day until 7:15 tonight. This group now comes and says give us martial law authority, complete authority, to bring a bill and control the House. Well, if they cannot get a bill together all day and they go through three different iterations of the bill they are bringing to the floor, why would I want to give them martial law authority to control the whole process? It is undemocratic, and I cannot think of anybody I would less like to give martial law authority to. Second, the whole concept of martial law authority implies some kind of emergency. What is the emergency to pass a welfare reform bill? What is the emergency that we are dealing with that would bring us into session at 7:15 at night and keep us here until 2 in the morning under martial law. What is the emergency?”