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ask.heather@mail.house.gov

In Washington DC
442 Cannon House
Office Building
Washington, DC
20515
202-225-6316 Phone
202-225-4975 Fax
In Albuquerque
20 First Plaza NW
Suite 603
Albuquerque, NM
87102
505-346-6781 Phone
505-346-6723 Fax

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Congresswoman Heather Wilson, First Congressional District of New Mexico


Postcard
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Filibuster June 15, 2007
 
Dear Friends,

Something happened this week in the House that I`ve never seen before. We filibustered.

That may not seem like a big deal. But it is. You see, the House rules don`t allow a filibuster. Only in the Senate can a person stop work by talking.

So, what happened? Democrats brought a spending bill to the House floor that included a slush fund for future earmarks that would be added in later. Very clever. An earmark can be challenged and amended out when the bill first goes through the House, but you can`t amend a negotiated conference agreement with the Senate. This way, they could prevent public scrutiny or amendments to strike earmarks.

Some people oppose earmarking completely. I don`t. Under the Constitution, the Congress appropriates funds. We can appropriate right down to the project for everything if we want to. We generally don`t. I do believe we should publicly defend our proposals and give people the right to vote on them. I`m happy to defend what we are doing for New Mexico. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

A lot of Republican members were really upset about this attempt to "air drop" earmarks into the bill at the last moment without any review.

As a result, over 100 amendments were drafted to the Homeland Security spending bill. Most of them were pretty minor, but each member of Congress can speak for 5 minutes on any amendmant by "moving to strike the last word." But you have to be there on the floor. Do the math.

If enough people are really upset, you can do a kind of group filibuster.

The debate on the bill started at lunchtime Tuesday and by about 10pm only about 5 amendments had been considered. Then members started "moving to rise" or adjourn for the night every 15 minutes. That kept members on or near the floor -- drifting off in chairs in the cloakroom or perched on couches trying to catch a few winks between vote bells until about 2am when the Democrat majority cried "Uncle" and stopped for the night.

By Wednesday, the Democrats figured out that they were on the wrong side of this issue. They didn`t want to keep defending secret earmarks or slush funds. They needed a way out.

It took until Thursday evening to work out a deal, but we are going back to the transparency rules on earmarks that Republicans established in the last Congress. Earmarks will be in bills with the sponsors name and they can be challenged and amended out by majority vote.

I`m very happy to defend projects that I`m supporting in New Mexico. Other members should be willing to do the same.

Wish you were here,

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