David Thomas: “Having been around here when my party was in the minority, I tend to scrutinize rules very carefully, because when we…”

“Having been around here when my party was in the minority, I tend to scrutinize rules very carefully, because when we were in the minority, the minority had no automatic privilege under the rules to provide motions to recommit with or without instructions. That is now in the rules; something that was never available when we were in the minority. So I assumed this was some kind of a closed rule, which normally gets the blood pressure up because you have to swallow hard and take what has been given to you. And then I found out this was an open rule. So, then, the reason why people are voting against an open rule is because certain amendments were not made in order. And when we examine what the amendments requested to be made in order were, there were people on the Committee on Rules and others which wanted to move defense money from one area to the other, notwithstanding the fact that people charged with that responsibility have spent months negotiating the package. Then I discovered that someone said that New Jersey, for example, our colleague from New Jersey, put out a "Dear Colleague" saying protect unemployment, job training, and health benefits for New Jerseyans, vote "no" on the rule; which is kind of an interesting argument. So I examined what he said New Jersey was not going to get. For example, it said New Jersey is not going to get $52 million. I would remind my friends on this side of the aisle that we just recently passed an economic stimulus bill.…”