Speech #980147007

As I was home I held a number of town meetings around my district in frozen Minnesota in January and I guess I am continually dismayed by the level of frustration that I hear from my constituents about different issues that are not being addressed by the Congress. And that seems to me to be the point that the gentleman is making is that the rules of the House are being used and abused to prevent the peoples agenda from being acted on. And time and again I have talked to people about the immigration problem and they say. "Why dont you do something about it?" And I say. "Well. we cant get a vote." And I talk to them about bankruptcy reform which affects a lot of small business people in my district and farmers who have had trouble with elevator bankruptcies and they say. "Why dont you do something about it?" And I say. "Well. bankruptcy reform has been tied up in the Judiciary Committee for all these years and we just cant do anything about It." Just today. in my case and I am sure the gentlemans. a number of people from my district came to my office for the annual "March for Life." And they are concerned about the human life amendment and they asked. "Well. why cant we get even a vote on a human life amendment?" And I said. "Well. we cant get it out of the committee and onto the floor for a vote." A number of people talked to me about the ERA. And I expressed some concerns I had. And I said. well. we should be able to vote on certain amendments to the ERA.