Jim Sensenbrenner: “Mr. Speaker, I am afraid that my distinguished colleague from Ohio hasn't read the bill, so I will read it for him. At…”

“Mr. Speaker, I am afraid that my distinguished colleague from Ohio hasn't read the bill, so I will read it for him. At the end of page 7 in the Senate-passed bill, there is a subsection (e) called ``rules of construction,'' which says, in part: nothing in this section shall be construed, one, to prohibit any expressive conduct, including peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration, protected from legal prohibition by the first amendment to the Constitution. Two, to create new remedies for interference with activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clause of the first amendment to the Constitution regardless of the point of view expressed or to limit any existing legal remedies for such interference. That means that if somebody wishes to peacefully protest research on animals, they can do so, as the statute, with the amendment that was adopted on the floor in the other body, specifically prohibits a prosecution for that. Now, let's look at what the people this bill has been designed to go after have been saying: ``I don't think you would have to kill too many researchers. I think that for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save 1 million, 2 million or 10 million nonhuman lives.'' Animal Liberation Press Officer Jerry Vlasak at the 2003 National Animal Rights Conference in Los Angeles.”