Louise Slaughter: “I remember the times when just the defense budget alone, we would take testimony from the beginning of the morning until…”

“I remember the times when just the defense budget alone, we would take testimony from the beginning of the morning until late at night for days at a time, hundreds of amendments. We thought that was just fine. It was wonderful. We wanted everybody to get a chance to talk about what was one of the most important things we do in the country, and certainly one of the most expensive. But it seems to me lately that because we can only work 2 days a week in Washington, next week I think we are going to be here a day and a half, that we have to condense everything. It is sort of the Reader's Digest version of the House of Representatives. And so we cut out everybody's rights to speak. We make sure that nobody has a chance to be in any way distasteful by saying something that another person may not like. We are elected by the people of the country to come down here and speak for them, nobody here, nobody in the gallery, nobody else can get up on this floor and speak except those of us they sent here to do it for them. And yet we are being stifled at every turn.”