Mr. Chairman, that was a tragedy about the shooting of the 18-year-old young man, Mr. Hernandez, who was shepherding his family's goats. But let me tell you a little bit more about the story. He had a .22 rifle. He fired twice at the…

Mr. Speaker, last year this Nation lost 6.9 million acres to catastrophic forest fires. That is an area larger than the entire State of Vermont. The Federal Government spent $1.6 billion in a losing effort to save that forestland. The…

this is a catastrophic wildfire. It is not a natural fire that burns along the ground and takes out the brush. It consumes millions of acres of big, beautiful trees, 6.9 million acres last year, more than the size of the entire State of…

It is a real privilege and honor for me to participate in this special order, because Larry has been a friend and a mentor to me for more than 10 years now since I first became a Member of the House and joined the House Committee on…

the State of Virginia recently enacted a law to delay our utilities from joining a regional transmission organization until July 2004. There is great concern in my State that the benefit that our consumers enjoy, low-price electricity…

included in this legislation is $1.1 million for the Roanoke River Upper Basin Project. Is it the gentleman from Ohio's intention and expectation that the contract for construction will be awarded only on an open and competitive bidding…

Mr. Speaker, just over 40 years ago, Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the midst of a fight in the war against organized crime sent legislation to Congress targeted at organized crime to crack down on gambling over telephone wires. That…

I strongly support it and was pleased to cooperate in seeing it move through the Committee on Agriculture, and I urge my colleagues to adopt it here. The gentleman is quite correct. We are not facing an ordinary situation here. These are…

new technologies offer a wide variety of resources for research and communication; however, we must face the reality that technology can also be used or harm. For example, computers may be used to generate pornographic depictions of…

I think that on balance he has prevailed in sticking to the bill that we attempted to bring forward from the House. We have made concessions that I do not like. There are things in this bill that I do not like, but on balance, I think…

However, I must strongly oppose the motion to accept the Senate language here, because to do so would be irresponsible. The fact of the matter is that while there are certainly people here who are in need of assistance, it is definitely…

No, because an individual, after they have been here for 5 years is a lawful, permanent resident, and they are entitled to apply for United States citizenship. And if there is a need to have benefits extended for a longer period of time…

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman has it exactly backwards. The proposal that we have put forward provides food stamps for children, the disabled, and refugees. The proposal that the gentleman refers to, section 452, only refers to citizens who…

There has got to be a work history requirement for an able-bodied adult, and there is no such requirement in the motion.

I want to compliment her and the other members of the Committee on Rules for fashioning a very fine and very fair rule to debate this important piece of litigation reform. I was pleased to hear the gentleman from Texas acknowledge the…

I did not handle class action lawsuits, but I will tell you that the measure of a good lawsuit is not how much work the attorneys put into it relative to what they receive, but whether they accomplish anything for their clients. And when…

Mr. Chairman, frankly this amendment is not just wrong, it does not make any sense at all. What the other side is proposing to do here will not have the effect that they are suggesting. They are limiting the options of those who would…

This does not accomplish what the intent behind it may be, and the proper discussion that is taking place here really will take place in great detail in front of the Committee on Ways and Means with both of our bills, and I urge that is…

I too oppose this amendment. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet; a class action by any other name is still a class action. This legislation is designed to treat all similar types of actions similarly, and it is totally unfair to…

There are two major problems with this amendment, which I strongly oppose and which is not well thought out. First, it betrays a serious misunderstanding about how discovery works in civil litigation. The amendment says if documents…

This bill is not about terrorists, it is not about Enron, it is not about shredding documents; what it is about is good, common-sense class action lawsuit reform to end this kind of abuse, where the lawyers get $2 million in attorneys'…

I commend him for offering this amendment and I strongly support it. Let me tell you why. To the gentleman from Texas, the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit do not pay the defendants' attorneys' fees, but they sure do in some class…

This legislation creates the kind of choice that he is talking about, because right now if a plaintiff or a defendant wants to have these cases heard in Federal court, they cannot be heard in Federal court simply because of a Federal rule…

This much-needed bipartisan legislation corrects a serious flaw in our Federal jurisdiction statutes. At present, those statutes forbid our Federal courts from hearing most interstate class actions, the lawsuits that involve more money and…

For better or for worse, if the gentleman would yield, I have to say that I never enjoyed such remuneration for the work that I did.