Chris Smith: “first of all, I want to make very clear, when we talk about legislative process, the Mexico City policy was offered on…”

“first of all, I want to make very clear, when we talk about legislative process, the Mexico City policy was offered on this floor, it mustered a clear majority vote when it was considered. The House even went on record and instructed conferees to retain the policy in conference. So it was a very real and legitimate part of the House/Senate conference that occurred. The flip side of it is that, on the issue of arrearages, that measure did not pass here but passed on the Senate, but we acceded to the Senate to move that ball forward. Let me also make a point, when Members suggest that my friends on the other side of the aisle were locked out of the price, let me just note that I chaired the subcommittee that wrote the major product that emerged as the State Department authorization bill. We had five hearings that preceded the markup of the bill that is now before us. My good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), and the Democrats were absolutely free to ask any question, to be part of that process, as they so engaged themselves. We had a markup in subcommittee. Twenty one amendments were offered. That markup went very well and the bill passed onto the full committee. We went to the full committee. During several days of markup we considered 22 amendments to the State portion of the bill. The bill came over to the floor. We spent 4 days on the floor of the House of Representatives.…”