mr. speaker , i rise to defend the integrity of the house this evening . 
the established practice of the house regarding committee reports is to accurately and objectively describe the proceedings when a bill is considered in committee . 
these reports are historical products that are used to understand and determine the intent of a bill , opposition to a bill , and to provide any additional information to understand the context of a bill reported by committees of the house . 
in committee we argue and we disagree and we offer amendments and we vote . 
we may vote and disagree in committee , but when the report is issued it is supposed to be objective . 
this institution must uphold this established practice of describing a committee mark-up in an accurate and objective manner so that history is accurately documented and reported for generations to come . 
unfortunately , that is not what happened last week when the committee on the judiciary reported h.r. 748 to the house floor with the committee report , house report 109-51 . 
republicans that ruled the committee on the judiciary mischaracterized five democratic amendments in an extremely disparaging and distorting manner . 
when alerted to the misleading and inaccurate description of the amendment in the committee report , they refused to correct the mischaracterization . 
here is something i can say that would be true about h.r. 748 . 
the bill could permit a father who raped his daughter to profit in a lawsuit against his minister . 
that is a true thing about that bill . 
it is an argument against the bill . 
but no one expects that argument against the bill to substitute for the name of the bill in the committee report . 
in prior congresses , democratic amendments like these were described in neutral terms . 
the vote last week was about h.r. 748 . 
the vote this week is about arrogance and abuse of power and ignoring the rules . 
the republicans changed the ethics rules when they were afraid they might not work for them at the beginning of this congress , and we are all watching the other body looking about changing the rules relative to filibuster because it suits their purpose and now this . 
we , including the chairman of the committee , each have a duty to uphold the integrity of this institution . 
we must not play politics with the records of history . 
the majority should live by the rules and precedents of the house . 
the house can not function if the majority uses its raw power to corrupt the record of the proceedings . 
