Jim Inhofe: “first, I was fascinated by the comment from the Senator from Connecticut that after a few years some of this stuff will…”

“first, I was fascinated by the comment from the Senator from Connecticut that after a few years some of this stuff will make sense to us. I have only been here 20 years. I am a patient man; I will wait. Let me put this in perspective, as far as my interest in this. Back in 1986 I was elected to the House of Representatives. There was a procedure that was used at that time called the discharge procedure whereby a person could discharge a bill out of the committee without having committee action, but it could be blocked by someone and we could not know the name of the person who blocked it. Consequently, we found ourselves in this situation where there would be legislation that everyone at home is very excited about. We could go home and campaign and say, yes, I am for this. I remember several of the West Texas Democrats wanting to oppose gun control. Yet their caucus wanted them to support gun control. So they would tell the people at home that they were opposing it. Yet they were the very ones who kept it from coming up for a vote. That is exactly the same thing we are dealing with here. In 1994 we were able to pass that reform. When we came over here in 1994, I was not even aware that you could put a hold on a bill without disclosing who you were or who was putting the hold on. This is a very similar thing. It is transparency, bringing it out in the open. I agree with my good friend Senator Wyden that if Members want to, they can put a hold on a bill.…”