Barbara Cubin: “I rise very reluctantly today to oppose this bill. First of all, this is occurring in my State. We tried to get through…”

“I rise very reluctantly today to oppose this bill. First of all, this is occurring in my State. We tried to get through to the chairman's staff, to his chief of staff, all day today. We could not find out that this Martin's Cove bill was on the Senate bill, S. 434, until late this afternoon, at which time we had to call the Democrat side to find out that it was hooked on to this bill. I have agreed that I would work with the chairman on finding a way to get a vote on this bill in the Senate because it did pass the House. However, Mr. Speaker, we all know the backlog of House bills, over 60, that are sitting at the floor of the Senate, and for us to attach a piece of legislation in a Member's district without the Member having any knowledge whatsoever of this until late this afternoon on a Tom Daschle bill, Mr. Speaker, this is just wrong. There has to be another way for the chairman to deal with the Martin's Cove bill. I am willing to work with him, but I have to speak against this right now because we were totally left out of the loop.”