Well, down the hall we have the Senate as they have been taking up the START Treaty to help limit our defense of ourselves with a country that is not the country we're most concerned about. We seem to keep ignoring the fact that Iran…

I thank the Speaker. I would like to finish by going through some of the Christmas proclamations by U.S. Presidents. I touched on some of these last week but was wanting to read some different messages this week because I think they're…

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn. The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 7 o'clock and 1 minute p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until Tuesday, December 21, 2010, at 10 a.m. ____________________

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 21, 1941, said these words--I won't read the whole thing, but he said, ``Sincere and faithful men and women are asking themselves this Christmas how can we light our trees, how can we…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As always, it is an honor and a privilege to address this House, especially when you know the history of this place. I would like to comment about my friend across the aisle who was talking about the 9/11 first…

The gentleman's premise is incorrect? So someone can claim time in opposition? Thank you. The CHAIR. The House is operating under a rule that allocates control of the time for debate to the chair and ranking minority member of the…

Under the rules of the House, going back to the Thomas Jefferson rules of the House, as adopted by this majority in this term, someone in opposition to a bill is always given the right to claim time. So I am asking the parliamentary…

So this is set up now, the rules have been abrogated, so no time is allotted to anyone in opposition? Did I understand that correct, Mr. Chairman? The CHAIR. The gentleman has not stated a parliamentary inquiry.

My parliamentary inquiry is, since the rules of the House allow for someone in opposition to claim time in order to speak on a bill, is that rule being abrogated now, or can we follow the rules and have someone like me, who is opposed to…

Mr. Chairman, there's not much time when there's 3 hours and most of that is dedicated to pushing this bill. But the fact is, following up on Social Security tax, it's reduced by 2 percent, from 6.2 percent, for 2 years, which dramatically…

Mr. Chairman, I have a parliamentary inquiry. The CHAIR. The gentleman will state his parliamentary inquiry.