Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act

Floor Speech

Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlewoman.

Mr. Speaker, no Member of Congress is ever going to come down to the floor and tell you, ``This bill that I'm offering is going to cut jobs, empower the most powerful, and weaken people who are already in precarious economic circumstances.''

Nobody is going to come and offer you the anti-jobs bill. It is not just going to happen. Every Member who comes down here is going to proclaim, ``Jobs, jobs, jobs and, if you do this right now, jobs''--chicken in every pot kind of talk--but we have a certain way that we do things here, and that is what the suspension calendar is for, noncontroversial legislation.

It is for things that nobody has a real point of opposing. It is not where you bring forth a bill of complicated derivatives legislation and where Members should offer and debate amendments, and there should be an open rule.

This bill actually combines a whole range of very complicated financial information. This is the kind of bill that people decry and why they are angry with Washington, D.C., when they hear that they are passing all types of bills that have sweeping implications for Americans all over this country and people don't even know about it.

The fact is that there are at least 15 separate pieces of legislation contained in what is being offered as, essentially, a noncontroversial bill. This bill is anything but noncontroversial.

I want to hasten to add, Mr. Speaker, that there might be pieces of legislation contained in this megabill that they are offering that have merit. I am not even saying that it is 100 percent bad. I am simply saying that it is highly controversial and it is extremely complicated.

I happen to remember being on the floor when we debated the Affordable Care Act. My colleagues on the other side made a huge point of saying, ``There are 2,000 pages, and there's five stacks.'' They made this case that there was this big, giant, voluminous bill and people didn't know what was in it and they were going to be called upon to pass this huge bill the public wouldn't really understand. They raised a policy point.

My point to them right now is that if passing a bill that is voluminous and that people don't understand is not a good thing, then don't do it. You can hardly put yourself in the position of doing exactly what you accuse your opponents of doing.

We should be taking these bills one by one and having amendments and debating them. I can tell you there are a number of bills in here that I personally am concerned about.

The Inter-Affiliate Swap Clarification Act is a bill that I believe would diminish the protections to the public of derivatives trading. The Customer Protection End User Relief Act may not have merit, but it is a complicated piece of legislation, and anyone who wants to tune in and watch the debate so they can understand what their Congress is doing ought to be able to do so. We shouldn't just package it up and sweep it through on some big vote.

I am urging a very strong ``no'' vote because the process is all wrong. If these bills have merit, let them stand on their own two feet. Please don't run this thing down our throat in the late evening hours or even in the morning.

Let's deal with these bills in a careful way that this country deserves. Let's say to the American people that this complicated financial legislation deserves debate, rebuttal, and amendment, and we need an open rule to do this thing right. There is no need to rush this thing through.

I just want to end the way that I started, Mr. Speaker. Everybody declares they are for jobs. Everybody says, ``Do what I am asking you to do for jobs.'' That will be the case whether it is some sort of big, giant loophole for a huge oil company who is just going to pocket the money, and it is going to be the case if somebody wants to get rid of health and safety regulations. It is going to be the case in nearly any case that we want to talk about here.

But good legislation stands scrutiny, withstands debate, and certainly wouldn't be afraid of standing on its own, which is exactly what this piece of legislation does not offer.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a very strong ``no'' vote for this complicated bill that involves very, very serious financial legislation that really needs to be handled one bill at a time.

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