Providing for Congressional Disapproval of A Rule Submitted By the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency--Veto--

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Madam President, Kansans celebrate a rich history of protecting man-made laws that deny natural rights. We have protested many things over a long period of time, and our history is significant in that regard. After years of bloodshed leading to the Civil War, Kansas was born a free State. Though we lament the use of any violence, residents of our State have acted on the firm conviction that human beings, regardless of their stage or state in life, could not be regarded as property by other people.

We take pride in the fact that one of the first sit-ins of the civil rights movement took place at the Dockum Drugstore in Wichita, KS, leading the way for peaceful protests in the struggle for equality.

Today I wish to call attention to a somber anniversary in our Nation's history that will be observed this week. Forty-three years ago, the Supreme Court determined an unborn child has no guaranteed right to life under the Constitution, paving the way to destroy the lives of 57 million unborn children since 1973.

Many Kansans, most of them very young, will continue a decades-long tradition of standing up for the civil rights of an unprotected class of people as they come to Washington, DC. With their chaperones, they will comprise one of the Nation's largest groups attending the annual March for Life.

They come each January, when it is rarely warm, and, as is forecast for this Friday's march, it will be snowy, cold, and probably very miserable. Despite the elements--despite the weather--when the hundreds of thousands of youth walk down Constitution Avenue past the Capitol and the Supreme Court, they give witness to the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception. They protest abortion providers receiving taxpayer dollars. They object to government policies that violate freedom of conscience.

These Kansans have made a 20-hour bus ride and will yet again brave cold weather to demonstrate their commitment to the right to life--a right that those of us in positions of power have an obligation to protect.

When visiting with these young advocates, I have been struck by the clarity with which they march. Motivated by a joy for life, a love for life, they come to Washington, DC, not to condemn, but rather to affirm that all life is sacred and to encourage a broader realization of that in our Nation.

Every opportunity they have while they are here they will use to educate and to encourage a point of view that protects life. As other times in our struggle for civil rights in our country, they will make progress to pursue and secure the right to life, and none of those things have happened as quickly as we would like.

As we work to expedite the day when the unborn are protected under law, I welcome to our Nation's capital all Kansans, as well as the hundreds of thousands more who will join them as they march for life. Every great movement begins with the first step, and these young Kansans can be certain their march will not be in vain.

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