José E. Serrano: “I came to this floor that evening under the rules of this House and passed an amendment with a number of people on the…”

“I came to this floor that evening under the rules of this House and passed an amendment with a number of people on the floor, no different than when other people have passed amendments. The fact of life is that the only reason we are revoting this amendment is because it has to do with the one issue this House never wants to yield on or debate fully. Second, according to that statement that the gentlewoman made, I think it is proper, then, to revote the others, because some of them passed by a very slim margin. If it is proper to revote one that passed with no vote, then it is proper to revote the other margins. Then, lastly but not unimportant, I think, it is interesting that so much is made about a report that will come to Congress. I do not know at what point it is improper to tell the taxpayers that Congress should be informed before it makes a decision. But it is interesting to note that at the insistence of some of the people who would be calling for this vote, the bill currently calls for reports on the enforcement of the ongoing Cuban embargo. In other words, in this bill right now there are provisions for reports to be made to Congress every few months on how that issue is going. So I felt that it was proper to add another report that would balance the issue a little bit, and prevent further problems in the future.”