Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Speaker, the underlying bill is one that impacts millions of Americans. Many of them are our most vulnerable…”

“Mr. Speaker, the underlying bill is one that impacts millions of Americans. Many of them are our most vulnerable constituents, but the process before us today shuts out any meaningful debate, and blocks consideration of important amendments affecting the elderly, mothers and children. This is not a welfare reform bill; this is spite. Moreover, the entire legislative body is put on hold. The Committee on Rules, as I said earlier, was shut down at midnight and forced to postpone our vote on the rule until 8 this morning, but then we repeated the process a little while ago with yet another version of the bill. As has been pointed out, in 24 hours this bill has become three. Today's drafting and redrafting makes a mockery of regular order, and Mr. Speaker, this has got to stop. It is duplicitous for the Committee on Rules to take testimony from our colleagues while they know full well that the bill before us will not be considered in its final form. I oppose this heavy-handed process and the cynicism it embraces, and urge my colleagues to defeat this ill-conceived rule. In the light of day, we can see that the underlying bill is one that can desperately use some improvement, and is clearly not ready for prime time. In fact, the Committee on Rules went out of its way to ensure that these much-needed changes will not be considered.”