Republican Leadership Ignores Labor-HHS-Education Spending Bill

REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IGNORES LABOR-HHS-EDUCATION SPENDING BILL -- (House of Representatives - September 27, 2006)

(Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the Republicans want to recess the House at the end of this week, but we should not leave town when there is serious business that the Republican leadership has failed to complete.

Why won't the Republican leadership let this House vote on the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill? This bill was reported out of committee on June 20. Here we are, 3 months later, still waiting for the Republicans to bring this critical bill to the House floor.

Does the Republican leadership, the Republican majority in this House, believe that funding for our public schools, our students, financial aid, health care systems, senior citizens, workers, and our youngest children simply does not matter, isn't important, that it is somehow okay to let this bill just sit around?

This Republican majority is out of touch and, come November 7, hopefully will be out of power. Mr. Speaker, I am more than happy to stay in town another day or two to finish this bill to help our kids, to help our senior citizens, to help our workers.

And in light of the Republican leadership's failure to move an agenda to help the American people, I ask unanimous consent to bring H.R. 5647 to the House floor for immediate consideration.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the guidelines consistently issued by successive Speakers, as recorded on page 734 of the House Rules Manual, the Chair is constrained not to entertain the gentleman's request until it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships.

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