Tom Cole: “we have had a good chance to debate the issues in the process today. After this debate, I am convinced that the process…”

“we have had a good chance to debate the issues in the process today. After this debate, I am convinced that the process worked as it should. There can be no debating the basic facts. The House Armed Services Committee considered 88 amendments; 75 of those amendments, 38 Democrat, 36 Republican, one bipartisan, were incorporated into the legislation. The House Rules Committee received over 100 amendments; 31 of those were made in order. They were about evenly balanced between the two parties. An additional six were incorporated into the manager's amendment. Numerous minority amendments were accepted and moved through regular order. The ranking members of the subcommittees and the full House Armed Services Committee all support the underlying legislation. Ultimately, there can be no dispute that the process followed for this legislation was fully the regular order. It was fair and protected minority rights. I think that we should focus, as we come to the conclusion of this debate, on what unites us instead of what divides us. The fact is that we agree on both sides of the House with 97 or 98 percent of what is in the actual legislation. This is actually a model of bipartisan cooperation, a consensus, despite some of the rhetoric that we have here today. To that end, Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the rule and the underlying legislation.”