mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume .  this is where i think we are .  some of us are frustrated by some of the litigation that has taken place in this area .  i said it when we debated this bill the last time on the floor .  i am not a fan of fat litigation either , but sometimes we have to be patient enough in a legislative body to let the institutions that are supposed to work , work .  they are working .  most of the lawsuits that have been filed in this area have been dismissed .  most of them have been dismissed .  that is what the courts are for .  we do not always get the result we want , but the courts are there to make a determination of what results are appropriate and not under the laws that exist .  the state legislatures are responding .  mr. chairman , there are 26 pending laws out there in the states .  a number of them have different components , different nuances .  some of them are retroactive , some of them are not .  whatever happened to our belief that the state legislatures , the states are a laboratory of good legislation ?  i thought that is what my colleagues who are supporting this bill believed in more heartily than anything else they came to congress to talk about .  when it is convenient for them , when it is convenient for them , there is no more important mantra to them than the mantra of states rights .  what are we doing to states rights here , in an area that throughout history has been the province of the states ?  i do not understand .  we can not be so intent on getting a particular result , so results-oriented that we disregard everything that we have set up in place to deal with problems of this kind : our judiciary , our state legislatures , our common sense .  