Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Speaker, I am troubled by recent actions taken by the Committee on Rules and the possible consequences for this…”

“Mr. Speaker, I am troubled by recent actions taken by the Committee on Rules and the possible consequences for this democratic body. Otto van Bismarck said, ``Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made.'' Republicans on the Committee on Rules have devised and employed new ``sausage-making'' rules over the past several weeks. These rules take several bills, grind them up, and shove them into a new legislative casing and make a new bill. H. Res. 638 provided for the consideration of three bills under the same closed rule, restricting the amount of time for floor debate and deliberation. Once the bills were passed, the rule required the bills be ground and repackaged as one bill. H. Res. 645 provided for the consideration of five bills, again limiting the time for floor debate. Once the bills were considered and passed, the text of all five pieces of legislation were ground together to make one large bill to send to the other body. Today we are faced with a new device, a Frankenstein rule. Last night, the Republicans cobbled together bad pieces of rules, concocted a few other pieces, and then passed everything as one big monster rule.”