Providing for Consideration of H.R. 748, Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 748, CHILD INTERSTATE ABORTION NOTIFICATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - April 27, 2005)

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, let me speak briefly about the distortion in the description of my amendment in the committee report. First, the suggestion, as the gentleman from New York has indicated, the suggestion that we had an opportunity to respond to the majority report is just not accurate. Perhaps we need to change the rules in light of this distortion, but the dissenting views explain our opposition to the bill, and we do not see the majority report prior to the submission of the dissenting views. Therefore, we had no way of knowing that such distortions would be part of the committee report.

Mr. Speaker, the underlying bill makes it illegal to transport a minor across State lines for the purpose of getting an abortion. Let me read my amendment. "The prohibitions of this section do not apply with respect to conduct by taxicab drivers, bus drivers, nurses, medical providers, or others in the business of professional transport." It was described in the report as saying: "Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport."

Let me just say that if a person is known to be a sexual predator, the last thing a prosecutor would have done would be to say, aha, we have him for transporting a minor across State lines as a taxicab driver, and we can get him for a misdemeanor; when, obviously, if they can show that he is a sexual predator, they have many felonies they could prosecute him for. But my view on the description and the distortion of this amendment is that it says more about the character of the persons responsible for describing the amendment that way, or for those trying to defend the distortion, than it does about the amendment.

I would point out that the Committee on Rules changed the description from the distortion in the committee report and described it as follows: "Amendment immunizes taxicab drivers, bus drivers, and others in the business of professional transport; doctors and nurses and others, medical providers or their staff, from the transportation provision of the bill." A description of what the amendment says, a clarification of the distortion, but again, Mr. Speaker, it just says more about the character of the people who wrote that distortion than it does about the amendment.

I would hope that we would adopt an amendment to the rules that would require the Committee on Rules to eliminate that distortion so that the public will be accurately informed as to what is in the bill and the amendments.

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