mr. speaker , i rise in strong support of this rule . 
contrary to what my very good friend from fort lauderdale has said , this is a very fair and balanced rule . 
if we look at the amendments that were submitted to the committee on rules and those that we have made in order , it is fascinating . 
we made half of the amendments in order that were proposed by the democrats , those were the priorities established , and 33 percent of the amendments made in order that were submitted by the republicans . 
we have really turned ourselves inside out to try and accommodate the wide array of issues that were put forward before the committee on rules . 
yesterday , we had three committees of jurisdiction share an hour and 40 minutes of general debate , and we are going to have an opportunity for free-flowing debate on a wide range of issues today . 
and i am anxiously looking forward to that . 
i would like to say that one of the priorities is the passage of the sessions amendment , which is very , very fair and , i believe , an appropriate way to deal with one of the important challenges we face . 
