Jim Sensenbrenner: “Mr. Speaker, very plainly, on page 3, lines 4 and 5 of the constitutional amendment, it says that Congress defines by…”

“Mr. Speaker, very plainly, on page 3, lines 4 and 5 of the constitutional amendment, it says that Congress defines by law what a de minimis amount is. So this does not require litigation. But having said that, listening to the argument of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner) would have persuaded the Members of the first Congress and the Congress that sat in 1863 to reject the 1st and 14th amendments to the United States Constitution. Because if one looks at the Constitution annotated, those amendments have been the subject of countless court decisions by the Supreme Court as well as the appeals courts and the district courts because they were not, quote, properly drafted, and because they would have, quote, encouraged litigation. I do not think, had the gentleman from New York been in the first Congress or in the Civil War Congress he would have voted against the 1st amendment and the 14th amendment. But the argument that he used which does not hold water with this amendment is that this amendment does not encourage litigation because it says that Congress defines by law what a de minimis amount is.”