John Hope Bryant

I will say one more time. Mr. Burton protests against circumstances against which he had a chance to change and he refused to vote to change it.

The gentleman will vote for a bill that says a lobbyist cannot pay for a Member's golf green fees?

The gentleman's answer was no, I think. And what I am saying is, I am not even talking about these sham vacations that come in the guise of some fundraising scheme for some charity. I am talking about just taking you out on the golf course…

Is the gentleman going to tell Members of the House that you have not played golf this year at the expense of a lobbyist?

The gentleman had political action committee contributions when most of us voted to limit those and the gentleman did not. Let me ask a second question. Has the gentleman played golf at any time in the last year at the expense of a…

Vote for the Schumer amendment, and vote against this outrage against the American people.

Last week a member of the gentleman's profession did some surgery down in Florida. I heard on the radio, he was supposed to cut off a person's foot. He amputated it, and when that person woke up, they had cut off the wrong foot. How much…

I am aware of it. It is an outrage. That is exactly why they are hiding behind it. They have no empirical data to back that bill up.

Eighty percent of the courts have commercial suits, and the Rand study the gentleman quoted was talking about commercial suits and he knows it.

The Rand study says 90 percent of these companies will be parties to litigation, but not tort litigation and not securities litigation. It is commercial litigation. Give the House the full benefit of the Rand study.

Why did the gentleman just tell us his case was filed in State court when it was filed in Federal court? I mean the grounds of the gentleman's defense continue to shift from moment to moment around here. I say to the gentleman, The fact is…

I would just like to appeal to the common sense of the gentleman from Texas. This amendment, which they all have handwritten at the last minute, says that deliberately from taking steps--for refraining from taking steps to discover whether…

A few moments ago you all were quoting to us from a 1976 decision in Sundstrand saying this is the common law; we are just going to codify it. Last night we were told there would be no more amendments to the bill. In the last 5 or 10…

I just took note of the fact that the gentleman said a moment ago that for some kind of a loophole in the RICO statute that allows people to sue securities dealers who they believe are guilty of a pattern of fraudulent activity, but I am…

To recapitulate, the amendment says that the loser-pay bill on the floor today will only apply when the defendant is a small business, that is, one with 500 employees or less. A small business is defined in the amendment as the term…

I point out to the gentleman: that there is no risk attached? That is absolutely preposterous. Anyone who has ever been close to the courthouse knows that. A lawyer who starts the case and has to finance it, he is not going to prosecute a…

He is not going to go through months and years of work; that is preposterous to assume that that is going on. It is not going on. That is why you have the rule of sanctions that the gentleman and I discussed. It has not been used very…

I would like to say in conclusion if you vote for the Berman amendment, what you get is a system which the gentleman from Pennsylvania had planned to add on to the Goodlatte amendment that would instead be the bill that would say we are…

You have got the same drag on the plaintiff as there is on the defendants, because the lawyer has to carry the burden. He is not going to do it unless he thinks he has a good chance of winning. That is the whole point of this. I would…

Neither he or Kemp are high on my list, but I would say to the gentleman that the people in court are former lawyers, the judges are former lawyers. Yes, the judge is most likely a former defense lawyer. They are the ones that come here…

I am interested to hear the gentleman express his faith in George McGovern's judgment.

I would strongly oppose the gentleman's amendment now that I learn that it is in addition to rather than in place of, for the simple reason that as you have constructed it now, first the plaintiff who has no resources and is obviously…

The pending resolution ought to include language to say that Members of Congress cannot take free meals and free vacations and free golf trips from lobbyists that are paid to influence the proceedings before this House. That addition to…

The response is very simple. It is public land. Even private foresters are moving away from clearcutting. Why would we want on land owned by you and me and our neighbors to strip the land bare, down to the flat muddy soil, and cause all of…

The purpose is to require that the Forest Service place native biodiversity at the top of the list of its priorities in managing these lands. Native biodiversity is defined as one of the definitions which the gentleman has referred to…