You may have heard the phrase "Martial Law" in the House this past week...

[originalpckelly]

It has nothing to do with the conventional meaning of martial law. Just look at these excerpts from the Congressional Record:

"The majority has been so kind in explaining why it believes that this martial law is needed. Unfortunately, the majority's explanation has fallen a bit short on convincing this side of the aisle that we need to do this today and not tomorrow.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this bill must come to the floor in this manner. It is, after all, only Tuesday. You would think that after controlling the House for 11 years that my friends in the majority would have figured out how to bring a nonemergency appropriations bill to the floor under regular order. Indeed, there is simply no good reason to handle these bills outside the normal parameters of the way the House should conduct its business.

Moreover, when the House does operate this way, it effectively curtails our rights and responsibilities as serious legislators. When the leadership of this body bypasses the rules of regular order, as it is attempting to again do today, it really does discredit this great institution in which all of us are privileged to serve.

Realize, Mr. Speaker, my concerns are not content but rather process. This martial law rule sends a false message to the American people that this is what the Framers intended when they envisioned the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives ought to be a body of thought and deliberation, where America's greatest needs are given proper consideration. Under the majority, however, thought and deliberation have been replaced by rubber stamps and obvious disorganization. This is not a good thing, and it is a disservice to the American people. "


" We offered in the Budget Committee a proposal that would give us 72 hours, a mere 3 days, to read thousands of pages, spending hundreds of billions of dollars. It is was ruled out of order. Why is it that in our effort to establish fiscal responsibility we do not take responsibility ourselves, we hand it to the President and say keep us from sinning once again?

We have the authority within this body to review legislation if we would just insist that the Rules Committee pass a 72-hour rule and enforce it, not override it with the appropriately named ``martial law'' rules that they do. Let us require a full two-thirds vote of this institution before any bill is brought to this floor with less than 72 hours to read. "

From the excerpts, we can gather the idea that it is an emergency procedure that suspends debate in the house. (It bears resemblance to martial law only in that form.) So next time when you hear it, feel sad that our House of Representatives is operating in a martial law-like manner, but don't completely freak out. :-)