Political Quotes

“To the gentleman from Florida's point, it is true that, with a structured rule, somebody can't walk in off the street, a Member of Congress, that didn't come to the Rules Committee, and come up with an amendment right now that they are writing on a napkin and bring it in here. But we did have an open process. We published the deadline, and we accepted not only ones that met the deadline, but late amendments. In fact, I think, of the amendments that we made in order, five of the seven amendments made in order today were actually filed late, so we did allow late amendments. That is off the top of my head. We will double-check the facts on five, but it was several of the amendments that were even filed late, we allowed. It is true, though, that somebody can't just walk right in here. It is not an open rule. It is a structured rule. So you can't just walk in the day of the floor hearing in about 45 minutes and offer an amendment that nobody has ever seen before. So I understand the gentleman's point.”