Marcy Kaptur: “what a travesty. Last Tuesday in the dead of night, with Members of this House given no voice and no notice, the House…”

“what a travesty. Last Tuesday in the dead of night, with Members of this House given no voice and no notice, the House Rules Committee, at the behest of Speaker Gingrich, ramrodded a rule to restrict debate on the critical issue of United States-China trade relations. Then last night, after 1 a.m., the restrictive rule was voice-voted by a deal struck by the proponents to muzzle debate today. Members were not recorded on that key rule vote. Now today the brief debate on whether Congress will actually grant Most Favored Nation trade status to China for the first time in a straight up or down vote in this Chamber will occur and the debate itself while most Members are at Bill Emerson's funeral today. What an outrage. Commerce with a fascist state will not yield liberty. Our 250- million-person market cannot sustain these gaping trade deficits growing every year with a nation of 1 billion 250 million people. Just the $40 billion trade deficit this year means another 800,000 lost jobs in America.”