mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from massachusetts for yielding me time , and i also thank him for his excellent presentation on the rule . 
mr. speaker , i rise in opposition to the rule . 
once again the folks running this place have made a mockery of the legislative process . 
this bill was put on a rocket docket so that no one knows what is in it . 
look at how we have proceeded here . 
first of all , last week , just a short 10 days ago , we first saw the bill . 
some of the members of the committee did not even see it until tuesday . 
unveiled on monday , and did not see it until tuesday , democrats and republicans not knowing what is in the bill . 
on wednesday , we had hearings , 2 short days later . 
we only had four witnesses and several hours of hearings ; and the crucial witness in this case , the administration witness , would not even take a position on the bill . 
here is the agency that for 30 years has administered the bill , with the scientists , with the expertise , and the administration witness walks in and says , we do not know . 
we do not have an idea . 
just go ahead . 
we could have taken the time , i say to the gentleman from california ( chairman pombo ) , to travel the country , to reach out and find out what was working with this law and what was not working and crafted a bipartisan bill . 
but that is not what we have here today . 
after we had that hearing with four witnesses , the very next day , rather than waiting a day or two and seeing how the hearing went and what the reaction was , we marked up the bill and reported it out of committee . 
so at the end of the week we thought we had one bill . 
well , last night in the committee on rules , there were major changes to the bill again in the manager 's amendment . 
so what the gentleman from california just said about the democrats writing the bill , sure , we contributed some of the language , but the manager 's amendment makes significant changes in this bill ; and the things that we are really fighting over , we may have contributed 90 percent , but the things we are fighting over in the 10 percent are huge things at stake : this huge giveaway to big developers , major changes in the environmental laws . 
those were written by others in the bill . 
so this bill is an abomination . 
it has made mockery of the legislative process . 
i urge my colleagues to defeat the rule and start once again , start once again with a process that respects this institution . 
