Louie Gohmert: “I do so much appreciate my friend, Doug LaMalfa, a very touching tribute to what is obviously just a wonderful…”

“I do so much appreciate my friend, Doug LaMalfa, a very touching tribute to what is obviously just a wonderful individual that we will be missing. For some time now the Democrats have been doing 1-minute speeches. On the last day we vote during the week, we are allowed to have unlimited 1-minute speeches, and for--I don't know--2 or 3 hours, my friends across the aisle have been doing 1-minute speeches, and I am so pleased that they are doing that. I think that is terrific. That is so much better than taking away the civil rights of people who have the right to assemble on the floor, to have sessions, to vote on bills, to debate bills because the previous violations of the rules by my friends across the aisle were just unprecedented. I would like to commend our Speaker for this aspect, comparing what he did and did not do today compared to what Speaker Pelosi did the last day of our session in July of 2008 because today I know leadership and staff saw the massive number of Democrats assembled to give speeches here, and the rule allows for that. There was no effort to shut down debate, gavel us out early, but that is exactly what Speaker Nancy Pelosi did in July of 2008. We had assembled a group. It may not have been quite as big as the Democrats had today, but we had a group over here, and under the rules at that time, they were 5-minute speeches, which could still be done, but they chose 1-minutes. We signed up for 5-minute speeches.…”