PATRIOT/USA followup: ongoing House debate

Fri Oct 12 15:43:39 UTC 2001

Last night, in a highly unusual maneuver, the Speaker recessed the 
House at 10:25 pm EDT, and didn't adjourn until 8:59 am, reconvening 
one minute later at 9:00 am.

The reason?  To file a "report" from the Committee on Rules at 8:58 am, 
on how to handle the anti-terrorism bill.

The House will now "debate" and vote on this report, even though few 
members of the House have actually seen the report.  Even minority 
members of the Rules committee haven't seen the report.

This may rank as one of the biggest raw power grabs in US history.

-- 
William Allen Simpson
    Key fingerprint =  17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26  DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32