Jim Sensenbrenner: “I would like to take issue with the characterizations that the distinguished gentlewoman from New York has made about…”

“I would like to take issue with the characterizations that the distinguished gentlewoman from New York has made about the committee report and about my actions in two respects. First of all, every committee report that is filed in the House of Representatives does allow the people who disagreed with the legislation to file dissenting views; and those who did support the legislation can file additional views, all of which are printed in the committee report. The majority has the responsibility in the committee report to articulate the arguments in favor of the bill because the committee report represents the views of those who voted in favor of the legislation at the committee level. The amendments that were offered and which are the text, or the description, at issue here in this debate today were all offered by members of the Committee on the Judiciary who oppose the bill. They were all defeated by a majority vote in the committee; and my committee, perhaps in a minority in the Congress, does print the entire text of our committee markups in committee reports. The text of the debate in the markup and the text of the amendments are contained in pages 58 through 120 of House Report 109-51 inclusive. Now, what the gentlewoman from New York is complaining about is the majority's arguments in favor of the bill and against the amendments which were defeated.…”