Rules Of The House

RULES OF THE HOUSE -- (House of Representatives - January 05, 2007)

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I appreciate the words of my colleagues from Texas and Florida. And I should remind my colleague from Florida when you are in the majority, you get to close debates. And he should have known that since he was in the majority for 12 years.

And I think for anybody to talk about abuse of power, it takes a lot of chutzpah. I would suggest to the gentleman from Texas to look at what happened over the last 12 years in this Congress.

Madam Speaker, this is the final title of the rules package. It consists of basic technical changes to the House rules.

First, this title gives the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform authority to adopt a rule, allowing committee members and staff to conduct depositions in the course of committee investigations.

Second, it shields the Rules Committee reports from a point of order if they are filed without a complete list of record votes taken during the consideration of a special rule. This provision allows the Rules Committee to publish recorded votes taken during committee hearings and committee reports and/or through other means, such as the Internet.

Third, it allows for the consideration of several pieces of legislation that are part of the first 100 hours agenda, if special rules for those provisions are not separately reported.

Fourth, this title continues the budget deeming resolution for the second session of the 109th Congress until such time as a conference report establishing a budget for the fiscal year 2008 is adopted.

Fifth and finally, this title renews the standing order approved during the 109th Congress that prohibits registered lobbyists from using Members' exercise facilities, which is something I know is very important to the Members on the other side of the aisle.

Now, my friends on the other side of the aisle have focused a lot of attention incorrectly on the second provision regarding the publishing of votes taken in the Rules Committee.

Let me explain in detail what this provision actually accomplishes and why we have included it in this package. Section 503 is a straightforward clerical change to clause 3(b), rule XIII, that will make it a little easier for the Rules Committee to transmit its work product to the House in a timely manner.

Despite what you may hear from the other side of the aisle, this section will not reduce the amount of information available to the public about what we do in the Rules Committee, and it will not stop us from taking public votes in the committee.

Let me make something else clear. The House rules already require committees to keep a record of all recorded votes and to make those votes available publicly.

That requirement has been in the permanent rules since 1953. The Rules Committee has always and will always comply with that rule. In fact, it is our goal to make Rules Committee votes available to the public more quickly than they do under the current practices. Our committee often meets on short notice and under severe time restrictions.

Unlike other committees, which usually have several days to put together reports, our committee is often required to assemble large, complex reports in a matter of hours. The proper reporting and filing of these reports in the House is essential to the efficient operation of the House.

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