Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2749, Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2749, FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - July 30, 2009)

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank my colleague from New York (Ms. Slaughter), Chair of the Rules Committee, for yielding time. This is a bill I know she feels strongly about.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is being brought to the floor as a rule bill today because it failed to win enough votes to pass under the Suspension Calendar yesterday. It's being brought to the floor under a closed rule. This is yet another closed rule on top of an entire appropriation season filled with closed rules. And I come before you today deeply concerned by the closed rule we have before us.

After promising the American people during campaign season that this would be the most open and honest Congress in history, Speaker Pelosi has gone back on her word by making this the most closed and restrictive Congress in history. Instead of having their ideas heard, the American people are being silenced with Speaker Pelosi's justification that ``we won the election; so we decide.''

Majority Leader Hoyer stated this past February his agreement with restoring the House to the regular order process of legislating. He said, ``I think that is a very important pursuit ..... our committees and Members are served on both sides of the aisle by pursuing regular order. Regular order gives to everybody the opportunity to participate in the process in a fashion which will affect, in my opinion, the most consensus and the best product.''

If the majority leader believes this, then why, Mr. Speaker, are we faced with another closed rule today? As my colleagues have expressed time and time again, bringing this number of bills to the floor under closed rules is unprecedented. It does an injustice to both Democrats and Republicans who want to have the opportunity to offer amendments and participate in debate with their colleagues over pressing issues of our time. By choosing to operate in this way, the majority has cut off the minority and their own colleagues from having appropriate input in the legislative process. This is not the way the greatest deliberative body in the world should operate.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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