Tom Cole

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko), my good friend and member of both the Rules Committee and the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank my good friend from Massachusetts for a spirited debate. We certainly had one yesterday, and we had one again today, and I know we will have one in a few minutes. In closing, Madam Speaker, I urge opposition to the rule. I oppose both the change in House rules that is being proposed today, and I oppose the massive and unwarranted 1,800-page, $3 trillion Democratic wish list that the majority is proposing as well. The rules changes that this resolution proposes will fundamentally change the nature of the institution. I know that is not the intent of my friends, but I think that is the impact of the rule. I am deeply concerned with how these changes will actually work in place, and I am concerned that we are doing so without regard to the fact that a change like this is likely to lead to litigation and may place in jeopardy legislation that we pass in a bipartisan manner. After reaching a bipartisan agreement on $2.5 trillion in spending over the last 6 weeks, the majority is now seeking to spend $3 trillion more, regardless of the actual needs of the Nation and, frankly, without any input from the Republican side of the aisle. My friends talk about the urgency of the moment. I agree. This is an urgent moment. But I also agree that we are going to have to work in a bipartisan fashion to actually pass something. So if this makes my friends feel better, that is fine; and if the intent is to set out a negotiating position, I guess that is legitimate; but if you think this is going to end up as law, you are sadly mistaken. The Senate has already said it will not take up the bill. The President has already said that, if it reaches his desk, he would veto it. So let's do what we have done four times in a row: Sit down; work together; craft a bipartisan bill. We have proven we can do it, and we can do it again. I am just mystified why my friends have felt the need to inject a clearly partisan bill and think this is going to move us down the road in the right direction. It is not. They are going to cement a lot of Members in on both sides of the aisle to positions that will make it more difficult to reach a common agreement when that is the appropriate thing to do. This really is an exercise in legislative futility. H.R. 6800 will never become law. Democrats know that, and they are not going to be able to jam it through. So they can come down here and talk about it as much as they want, and there are certainly some parts of it I could support, but as a package, it is going nowhere, and it is not moving us toward a solution. I implore my colleagues to return to what they have done in the previous four bills where we worked together, brought a product that was bipartisan to the floor, and passed it overwhelmingly with almost no dissent. That was the formula for success. The formula they are pursuing now will not succeed. They know it will not succeed. I have never been convinced as to why deliberately launching out something you know won't pass is useful. Both sides do it, by the way, from time to time. We have certainly done it, so I don't want to suggest this is strictly a partisan exercise. This bill will not succeed. I urge rejection of the rule. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), my good friend and the distinguished ranking member of the House Administration Committee.

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for my very good friend from California, but we live in a system right now of divided government. We have a Democratic House that certainly has a voice in anything that is done. We have a Republican Senate, and we have a Republican President. We have proven that we can work together. We did for four straight bills, extraordinary amount of time, largest single bill in American history. So it is not as if the two sides don't know how to do this. For whatever reasons, my friends chose to decide to move alone. Well, they can certainly do that through this Chamber, and that is their right to do. I respect that if that is what they want to do. But if they think moving alone without Republicans will get them anywhere in the United States Senate or at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I would just suggest that is probably not the case. So again, we know how to do this. We have proven we can do it; an extraordinary job by all concerned on both sides of the House to get those four bills done. Nobody works better, by the way, in a bipartisan sense than my good friend, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, and nobody works with her better than my good friend, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. I would suggest the rest of us probably should clear out for a while and let those two work together. I bet you we could actually get a bill to pass. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), my very good friend who is a Member of the Ways and Means Committee and who has rendered distinguished service to our country and to our institution.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan), my good friend and the Republican ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

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

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my very good friend and member of the Judiciary Committee and Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I have additional speakers on the way. They have not yet arrived, so I am going to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Palmer), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would advise my very good friend from the great State of Virginia that we didn't wait. We worked with you and passed four bills. You are wasting time. You are wasting time. You have brought a bill here you know will not pass the Senate, that the President will not sign. You decided not to work with us. So please don't accuse us of delay. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Fulcher), a member of the Education and Labor and Natural Resources Committees.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), my very good friend, a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), my very good friend, a member of the Agriculture and Education and Labor Committees.

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

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), my good friend and the distinguished ranking member and former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I have been extraordinarily restrained in this debate because I have a lot of speakers that need to have time on the floor to express their feelings. Sometimes when the other side repeatedly says things that are either out of context or deserve a rebuttal, you have got to respond. To my good friends on the other side who have cited the Senate committee, they know in negotiations we said we would be happy to do exactly that. We just want markups to be in person. So please don't use the Senate committee as if we somehow were opposed to that. Second, my friend said we are intimidated by technology. We are not intimidated by technology. Heavens. We respect tradition and we think there is a better way to do this. As my friends know, we moved toward them in the course of that discussion. Finally, my very good friend, the chairman, said this was a plot maybe to do nothing. We have passed four bipartisan pieces of legislation working together. We have done a lot in the last few weeks, and to suggest that we would deliberately sabotage the operation of the House simply because we disagree with you is wrong. Quite frankly, doing nothing is bringing a bill to this floor--which you are getting ready to do in H.R. 6800--that you know the Senate won't pick up and you know the President won't sign. That is doing nothing. We have proven that working together we can do a lot. All we ask is, let's return to that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers), the distinguished ranking Republican Member on the Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), my very good friend.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta), my very good friend.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Byrne).

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert), my great friend and distinguished Member.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. John W. Rose).