Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendments to H.R. 3221, Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 3221, FORECLOSURE PREVENTION ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 07, 2008)

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Vermont for yielding me this time to discuss the proposed rule for consideration of this omnibus package of legislation being returned from the Senate.

On behalf of the Republican Conference, Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this closed rule and to this entirely closed process which is being manipulated for the sole purpose of silencing 430 Members of Congress and denying the Republican minority a motion to recommit.

I want every single Member to understand what today's vote really does mean. It means a vote for this rule is going to give only Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi the opportunity to determine the shape of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, that means that for anyone who is tuning in to watch today's debate on C-SPAN who is not sitting in Harlem, New York City; New Bedford, Massachusetts; or San Francisco, California, your vote is being silenced by the new majority's rule.

A vote for this rule is also a vote to once again break the Democrat leadership's numerous campaign promises to provide this House with regular order, including the bare minimum that can be done to protect minority rights through the inclusion of a Republican substitute.

I wish I could say that this disavowal of last year's campaign promises is precedent setting. Unfortunately, breaking these promises to the House and to the American people has become all too common in what has officially become the ``most closed Congress in history.''

What is precedent setting about this rule is that it directly contradicts the past statements of the chairman of the Committee on Financial Services, Chairman Frank, who prior to today's rule had an unblemished record of at least asking for his party leadership and the Rules Committee to stick to their word.

In the past Rules Committee hearings, Chairman Frank has advocated allowing this House to debate amendments:

(1) where there is a genuine issue of public policy;

(2) that allow for debate of a significant issue; and

(3) when amendments are germane and not duplicative.

Despite the fact that the broken promises Democrat majority made it clear that no amendments, not even significant, genuine, germane and unique ones would be considered by this House, 10 Republicans brought amendments to the Rules Committee that would have met each and every one of these prior requirements.

Unsurprisingly, all of these thoughtful amendments were summarily denied by the Rules Committee last night in what might well be renamed the ``Graveyard of Good Ideas Committee'' in the House of Representatives.

So despite the fact that there is no policy reason for completely shutting down the legislative process and even going so far as denying the minority a basic motion to recommit in moving this unvetted omnibus through the House, the Democrat majority has once again taken the path of least political resistance. And in doing so, they have again diminished this institution and the rights of the overwhelming Members who have a privilege to serve in this body.

Because the Republican Members of this House overwhelmingly oppose this lock-down rule that denies our party any substantive input into this process, including any amendments from a taxpayer bailout that may or may not solve the problems that it claims to, I have a number of Members who are interested in speaking up against this rule. I plan to save the majority of my time for them to provide their own thoughts on the shortcomings of this bill. ]

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