Charles Rangel: “we are not going to have much of a dispute here. First of all, we were not saying that the majority violated any rules…”

“we are not going to have much of a dispute here. First of all, we were not saying that the majority violated any rules by giving us the substitute 2 minutes before midnight and the description right after midnight. That is your prerogative to do. We think it is wrong. We are not charging you with violating rules. And the time fact as to when we got up to leave, yes, we did. We had to decide what we were going to do, and we did get up and leave the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark) behind. The question is, did the chief of staff come as soon as we got up and say that the Chair told us to leave the room? And even though you may not know who directed the sergeant, the police to take us out of the room, the record will show they received a call and they know who they received it from. It was from the chief of staff from the Committee on Ways and Means or someone saying they were speaking for the chief, and it was after that that the police came. I do not know whether the chairman rescinded the direction to kick us out of the room, but what we are saying today is that that never should have happened. That room belongs to us just as much as it belongs to the Republicans. So we are not arguing with you about violating the rules, but when we objected, that is the only thing that we have. We used the tools that we have. We did not give you unanimous consent to have the substitute to be considered. You may call it a waste of time.”