Melvin Watt

I find it very interesting to serve in a body where the Committee on Rules 1 week decides that democracy is all about debating every single amendment separately, and then the very next week decides that it will not allow a separate debate…

to be honest, on days like today, I am just saddened to be a part of this body. We bring bills like this to the floor and we scream at each other; and the truth of the matter is that there are wonderful, good people on both sides of this…

Mr. Speaker, the underlying proposed constitutional amendment that is the subject of this debate, and which has been the subject of general debate for now almost 2 hours, reads: ``The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical…

I think the thing that I probably most underestimated when I came to Congress 9 years or so ago was the extent to which Congress is a family of people. It has the same kinds of personalities that all families do. Some of them are socially…

I never served with Representative Rich Preyer. I met him for the first time in 1992 when I was running for Congress for the first time. Rich and his wife Emily had heard about my candidacy. I, of course, had heard about Rich Preyer for…

Mr. Speaker, this debate is always interesting at this time of the year. Every year, for the last 6 years, around April 15, this same or some version of this proposed constitutional amendment has come to the floor of the House, not as a…

I would just point out to him two things. Yes, this bill will make the system more efficient, but from 22 years of the practice of law, I will tell the gentleman that every single case is a unique case for the parties in that case. So when…

I was one of several people in the committee who actually voted against reporting this bill favorably to the floor; and while I am not personally planning to ask for a vote on the floor if somebody else does not ask for it, if a vote is…

Mr. Chairman, in the 13 or so blocks from my residence to my office this morning I promised myself that I was going to be calm and unemotional in this debate, despite the fact that I think the process in the committee was a charade and I…

for the last several years, since the passage of the Balanced Budget Act, all health care providers who provide medical services under Medicare have been suffering, and we have been making efforts to try to address that problem…

I am going to rise in reluctant opposition to the rule under which these bills are being considered, because the rule provides that these bills will come here under suspension, which means that the bills cannot be amended in any way. It…

This bill reminds me of a neighbor of mine who, when I was growing up, had a dog who used to chase his tail. He would run around and around in circles chasing his tail. It seems to me that that is what we are doing with this bill. Because…

I am reading a report from the Center for the Study of Intelligence, and I am reading verbatim from that report. It says, and I quote: ``An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 women and children are trafficked annually to the United States.'' Now…

My colleague from Texas (Mr. Smith) would have us believe that this is about fraud. It is not. Regardless of how many people come in having been imported into our country as slaves or as sex objects, there still has to be an application to…

I have been in this body 8 years almost now, and I think I have never seen a bill come to the floor that I thought was a perfect bill. Sometimes we have 99 percent terrible things in a bill and one good thing that tempts one to vote for…

I want to start by emphasizing that nobody can be unsympathetic to the victim of a rape or sexual abuse, especially one of the kind that has the violence and animus associated with it that was directed at Aimee. We need to go out of our…

I have about ceased to come to the floor to debate appropriations bills because, especially at this stage in the process, we engage ourselves in a charade because we know this bill and many others are going to be vetoed. Occasionally I…

in the last few days, my Republican colleagues have gone out of their way to say that they are trying to reach out to the African-American community and racial minorities in various ways. They have had a big summit here for Historically…

I thought that we could not in the Committee on the Judiciary make a quick judgment about how to create a level playing field between brick and mortar stores and e-commerce sales. The Commission has failed in my estimation, and I think we…

Mr. Speaker, I really had about made up my mind not to come over and even debate this amendment today. It is quite obvious that this is not a serious effort to amend the Constitution. What it is, instead, is a serious effort to make a…

Well, beyond the Subcommittee on the Constitution, the bill did not even go through the full Committee on the Judiciary this year. It has in prior years. But if my colleagues are seriously saying that they are serious legislators and…

I want to put a slightly different spin on this this evening, because I was wondering, when they write the history of the 20th Century, what will they write? When they write the history of the Civil Rights movement, what will they write…

if my colleagues review carefully the Republicans' budget, it really appears to be a massive shell game. They would have us believe that they can deliver massive tax cuts, extend the life of Social Security and Medicare, eliminate every…

Mr. Chairman, let me acknowledge from the outset that we often get results from State courts, local governments, Federal courts, from every source, that we do not especially agree with. That happens quite often. But every time we get a…

I yield myself 2 minutes. This is the third or fourth time that somebody has come to the floor and talked about it taking 9\1/2\ years to get through the process. So let me be clear on how this 9\1/2\ year figure was derived. It was also…