FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       CONTACT:  Peter Kovar 202-225-9400
                                                                      Michael Mershon 202-225-6101

MCGOVERN, FRANK REPEL A SECOND ATTACK ON GREATER FALL RIVER

Congressmen Jim McGovern and Barney Frank hastily rushed to the floor of the House from other work on Thursday afternoon when they were alerted by the Democratic Leadership that right-wing Republicans were planning an ambush attack on the McGovern legislation that preserves the Brightman Street Bridge.

Using a parliamentary motion and not giving any notice to either of the two area Congressmen, conservative Republicans sought to undo the amendment sponsored by Congressman McGovern that requires that the Brightman Street Bridge stay in place.  Under the procedure the Republicans used, called a “motion to recommit,” Democrats received no notice of the motion and had only five minutes in which to rebut the arguments for it.  Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, briefly spoke against the motion and then turned the rest of his five minute allotment over to the two Fall River Congressmen.  

Congressman McGovern staunchly defended the importance of keeping the Brightman Street Bridge up with the overwhelming support of people in the area, and Congressman Frank noted that as Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, he had always been willing to accommodate other people’s views of what was needed in their districts, and that he would be very surprised and disappointed if that principle were to be discarded with regard to his own district. 

In part as a result of the effective lobbying of the two Fall River Congressmen, as well as the strong support they received from the committee chairman and the Democratic Leadership, the motion was heavily defeated.  Ordinarily on motions such as this, the vote falls on partisan lines.  On this motion, every Democrat voted with Congressmen Frank and McGovern, but an unusually large number of thirty-seven Republicans broke with their party to support the Fall River position, while five other Republicans voted present.  Observers of Congress cannot remember a time when a party received the support of a smaller percentage of its membership on a recommittal motion of this sort.

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