Introducing the Conyers-Sherman Constitutional Amendment
INTRODUCING THE CONYERS-SHERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
SPEECH OF
HON. BRAD SHERMAN
OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
* Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague, Congressman JOHN CONYERS, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, in introducing the Conyers-Sherman Presidential Eligibility Constitutional Amendment. This Amendment will allow any foreign-born person who has been a United States citizen for 20 years or longer to qualify to run for President of the United States. Once enacted and ratified, this amendment will allow millions of well qualified Americans to aspire to our nation's highest office.
* This bill is not about the election prospects of any one man or woman. It is about the dreams of all Americans. Every year I visit high schools in the San Fernando Valley. I tell those students that America is a great country, a land of opportunity. I want to tell them that it is also a country where any child can grow up to be President of the United States. Unfortunately, for many high school students in my district, the fact that they were born in another country is a complete and unequivocal bar to the Presidency.
* All American children regardless of where they are born should have all the rights and responsibilities of native born Americans. All American children should be able to aspire to rise as far as their talent, energy and ability allow them, including our nation's highest office. There is no good reason to exclude Americans who will grow up to attend our colleges and universities, who will protect America in our armed forces, or who will work hard and pay their taxes, from our nation's highest office. When this Constitutional Amendment is passed and ratified each of them will have that opportunity.
* The exact reasons for including the natural born citizen language in the Constitution are lost to history. The meticulous record of the Constitutional Convention, kept by James Madison, hardly gives it a mention. Regardless of that lost reasoning, America is now a nation of immigrants. We are a nation that should encourage those who come here to aspire to their highest goals and loftiest dreams. Mr. Speaker, the Constitutional Amendment Mr. CONYERS and I introduce today will make some of those dreams a possible reality for the first time in our history.
END
http://thomas.loc.gov/