mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from florida for yielding me the time . 
mr. speaker , i rise to express my deep frustration with the process being used by the republican leadership in this house . 
the bill before us today radically changes , among other things , the asylum law of this country . 
religious groups , civil rights groups , human rights groups have all expressed grave concerns with this legislation . 
there are serious and legitimate concerns with this bill , but the chairman of the committee on the judiciary did not hold a single hearing or markup in the 109th congress . 
in fact , the bill bypassed the committee on the judiciary completely . 
despite the chairman 's rhetoric , there are provisions included in this bill that were never considered in the last congress . 
the pattern of abuse by the republican leadership continues unchecked . 
major bills are being rushed to the floor without even a passing glance by the committee of jurisdiction . 
bills are being brought up without members getting the chance to read them . 
thoughtful amendments are routinely denied an opportunity even to be debated . 
the rule that we are considering right now provides for only general debate . 
later today , the committee on rules will meet again on h.r. 418 to decide whether the amendment process will be open or closed . 
yesterday , among several other amendments , our colleagues , the gentleman from new york ( mr. nadler ) xz4002890 and the gentleman from florida ( mr. meek ) xz4002700 , testified that they believed the asylum provisions in this bill will make it harder for a persecuted person to gain asylum in the united states . 
they have an amendment to strike that language from the bill , and i hope the house will have an opportunity to consider that amendment . 
those who gain asylum are legitimately fleeing from persecution in their home countries . 
they are fleeing for their lives ; but under this bill , a woman forced by her government to have an abortion who tries to flee from such oppression will be forced to return to her home country . 
i can not believe that the united states government would be that cruel and we would turn our backs on people who need asylum in order to truly be free from torture and persecution . 
let me be clear . 
every one of us wants to make this country safer and more secure and prevent any further attacks , but this bill is not going to do it . 
asylum already is a highly scrutinized process and is very difficult to get . 
by law , terrorists are already barred from gaining asylum . 
what we need is better enforcement of the laws we already have , not a bill that restricts the flow of the persecuted just because a few in this body either do not like immigrants or feel the need to pander to political pressures from immigrant haters in their districts . 
as i said , there are other amendments that were offered last night in the committee on rules by both democrats and republicans , a total of 14 . 
they are all important . 
they are all relevant to this bill . 
they all should be considered . 
mr. speaker , this is an important issue . 
for many , it is a life or death issue . 
the least we can do is give this bill an open rule . 
this is the very least we can do given the lousy process that we have been shown . 
what we should do , however , is send this bill back to committee , allow the committee to hold hearings and discuss this thoughtfully . 
let us hear from the experts . 
let us all understand the impact of this bill . 
let the committee do a markup and send the bill to the full house for a vote . 
we can do better , and i would appeal to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to urge their leadership to stop trashing the rules , procedures , and traditions of this house . 
no matter what our views are on this bill , no matter what a person 's political party or ideology is , all of us i hope can agree that the current process undercuts democracy and diminishes this great house of representatives . 
