Rep. Brooks Calls for Postponement of Fiscal Cliff Vote in House

“I will not condone with my vote a process that denies the American people an opportunity to participate in their Republic on issues of this magnitude.” – Rep. Brooks

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) addressed the U.S. House early this afternoon, calling for a calm, deliberative evaluation of the fiscal cliff bill hastily passed in the Senate in the early morning hours of the New Year. Rep. Brooks charged the House to “postpone this vote until Congress and the American people have time to study and evaluate this extraordinarily complex legislation and its impact on taxes, revenue, the economy, our debt, and a myriad of other issues. It is better to get it right than act in haste.” The Senate-passed bill is more than fifty pages long, and affects hundreds of billions in spending.

A full text of Rep. Mo Brooks’ statement is below.

Rep. Mo Brooks:   Statement on the Senate’s Fiscal Cliff Bill

January 1, 2013

House Floor

“Mr. Speaker, the Senate passed a fiscal cliff bill this morning without time for Senators to adequately evaluate it, and, more importantly, without giving the American people time to understand it and share their insight with Congress.

“Senator Mitch McConnell observed that ‘this shouldn’t be the model for how we do things around here,’  and then the Senate proceeded like a bull in a china closet anyway.

“The Senate boasts it is America’s ‘deliberative body.’  Today, that claim rings hollow.

“Mr. Speaker, the House must postpone this vote until Congress and the American people have time to study and evaluate this extraordinarily complex legislation and its impact on taxes, revenue, the economy, our debt, and a myriad of other issues.

“It is better to get it right than act in haste.

“Mr. Speaker, if we vote on the Senate fiscal cliff bill today, I will vote against it because this is not the way to do the people’s business. 

“I will not condone with my vote a process that denies the American people an opportunity to participate in their Republic on issues of this magnitude.”

Yesterday, Rep. Brooks addressed the U.S. House on the importance of maintaining the Bush Tax Cuts. Text of that speech is available at brooks.house.gov.

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