John Hope Bryant: “I say to my colleagues, had I been a party to this, I would stand up on the floor, and I would wave my arms and speak…”

“I say to my colleagues, had I been a party to this, I would stand up on the floor, and I would wave my arms and speak loudly as well. The fact of the matter is you voted for the bill that came out of committee, and the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bliley] voted for the bill that came out of committee. I voted against it. But now the two of you come to the floor with a totally different bill. Mr. Chairman, this is not the bill that passed the House by 400 and something to nothing last year. This is a totally different approach. The fact of the matter is it was written in the darkness. The committee did not have any input into this. The Members did not have any input into this. My colleagues wrote it behind closed doors. The Bell companies came and said, 'Hey, we decided we don't like what happened in the committee. Rewrite the bill and help us out.' Mr. Chairman, that is what my colleagues have done here. The fact of the matter is this process is an outrage, and Members stand on the floor, and wave their arms and say somebody is trying to deceive the American people, they should have written the bill in public, not behind closed doors. It is an outrage.”