Debate is often cut off: many controversial measures are voted on under a "closed rule", which bars amendments.
There is also some talk from Republicans of ramming such a measure through the budget reconciliation process, which bars amendments and filibusters.
But that apparently doesn't matter to the White House or Congressional leadership, who barred amendments that could have potentially strengthened the bill from being offered on the floor ahead of Thursday's vote.
But in a sign of the party's anxiety over the issue, House Republican leaders railroaded the gun-crime bill to the floor under a time-saving procedure that bars amendments, even though the measure had only one hearing and no votes in the House Judiciary Committee.
In a sign of the bill's importance to Republicans, the House leadership rushed the measure to the floor today, without committee hearings, under an expedited procedure that limits debate and bars amendments but also requires a two-thirds vote for approval.
The bill, known officially as Trade Promotion Authority, would raise Obama's chances of success by permitting expedited procedures in Congress that bar amendments and stop senators from mounting filibusters.
Barring an amendment to the laws of physics, there would be no way to fit one.
If the shareholders vote no, the current contract would expire in 2012, after which, barring an amendment to the agreement, Penn South apartments could be sold for whatever the market would bear.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, used a procedural tactic to bar such amendments.
He added: "To hold that overturning a law enacted by referendum infringed on First Amendment rights would effectively bar repeal, amendment, or revision of all laws initiated by the people".
