Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Rules. Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon) for yielding me the time. So maybe it is just me. You know, I am still suffering from trauma, having served in the minority under my Republican friends for 8 years where, routinely, we were given a process where we were almost always shut out. In the last Congress, we had a record-breaking 103 closed rules on major bills--completely closed. You can't amend it. And they talk about all the amendments they made in order, but they don't talk about the thousands they did not make in order. Now, look, I don't want them to feel the same way that I did in the minority. I want them to not have to go through the trauma that so many of us went through where we were routinely shut out. And that is why, when we came up with the Rules package, we did things like required that bills had to have hearings in committees of jurisdiction before they came to the Rules Committee, that they had to have markups in the committee of jurisdiction before they came to the Rules Committee. I mean, they routinely brought legislation to the floor where committees of jurisdiction never had a hearing, never had a markup. They mysteriously appeared. They would come to the Rules Committee; they would get a closed rule; and then we were forced to vote up or down on it.…”