Lloyd Bentsen: “Mr. Speaker, this is not about the merits of the NEA. We already know that a majority of the House supports the NEA and…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is not about the merits of the NEA. We already know that a majority of the House supports the NEA and if we had a vote it would pass. It is about the process. It is a continuing pattern in this Congress and in the last Congress. In the last Congress we saw when a majority of the Congress wanted to keep the Government open, the majority would not allow the vote. We saw in this Congress when a majority of the Congress wanted to end the debacle with the flood disaster in the Midwest, the majority in the Congress would not allow a vote. We saw in the B-2, and I voted for the B-2, that the majority in this Congress tried to strip the amendment and caused us to wait 10 hours to consider that bill. We are going to do the same thing today because no matter what happens with this rule, the NEA will get funded because that is the will of the majority, the real majority of the House and not the ruling majority. Just this week in Mexico, last Sunday, we saw the ruling party allowed free and fair elections and respected the will of the people, but the majority party of this House does not respect the majority will of the House itself. What a shame that is. Defeat the rule.”