Obama Citizenship

House Speaker Pelosi to Dismantle ?Contract with America? Rules

By Phil

From FreeRepublic.com (via HumanEvents.com), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) intends to dismantle key “fairness” rules that would allow Republicans to offer altenative bills or even amendments to bills:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi?s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi?s rule changes — which may be voted on today — will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich?s ?Contract with America.? [link added]

In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week that would bar Republicans from offering alternative bills, amendments to Democrat bills or even the guarantee of open debate accessible by motions to recommit for any piece of legislation during the entire 111th Congress. These procedural abuses, as outlined in the below letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, would also include the repeal of six-year limit for committee chairmen and other House Rules reform measures enacted in 1995 as part of the Contract with America.

The GOP letter is said to contain signatures of the entire Republican leadership.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on January 05, 2009 (boomark / email).