Repubs Use Tactic For 1st Time In 20 Yrs - "SPEED VOTING"

[kpete]

Speed voting: House flies through $91.9 billion spending bill

RAW STORY
Published: Monday March 20, 2006



By unanimous consent, the House Thursday used two-minute vote times to get through an emergency spending bill, according to Roll Call.

Excerpts from the Roll Call piece follow:

Seeking to consolidate time as House Members slogged through dozens of proposed amendments to the $91.9 billion emergency spending bill Thursday, Republican leaders resurrected a tactic that hadn’t been used in nearly 20 years: speed voting.

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) revived the strategy Thursday afternoon, seeking a “more efficient” way of dealing with the numerous back-to-back votes expected on the spending bill designating funds for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as hurricane relief to the Gulf Coast, a spokesman said.

“This way are not consumed with standing around on the floor and waiting, and they can get back to the bulk of the work they do here in Washington,” said Boehner spokesman Kevin Madden.

Under House rules, the Speaker may reduce the minimum time allotted to any successive votes to five minutes, as long as the first vote in the series is held open for 15 minutes...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Speed_voting_House_flies_through_91.9_0320.html

[rusty charly]

1. get back to the bulk of the work they do here in Washington:

meeting with lobbyists