"Mr. Speaker, today, the House will attempt to do something it has never done before----strip our courts of hearing cases on the Defense of Marriage Act.

"Eight years ago, I opposed DOMA because I felt it was a blatant act of discrimination against gays and lesbians. To this day, I believe Republicans forced the issue in 1996 because it was a presidential year and they wanted to divide the country in a desperate search for votes.

"It's eight years later and Republicans are at it again. Last week, they were embarrassed in the other body when they couldn't even muster a majority on a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Since that didn't work, why not strip the courts of the authority to hear cases regarding DOMA.

"This court-stripping bill would, for the first time in our nation's history, take from a group of Americans the right to appeal to our courts. It's also extremely dangerous in that it would lead to the possibility of the legislature stripping other issues from judicial review in the future.

"Bad policy, but in an election year Republicans simply don't care."