The People's Night

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from the great State of North Carolina for inviting me to speak on this topic.

I stand before you in disbelief and in sorrow tonight. It has been mentioned that the State of the Union Address was originally scheduled to take place today, and it has been rescheduled for next week.

I think it is appropriate for us then to bring attention to what is happening here in the people's House. I think the American people deserve to know that. As we speak, I think the American people need to know that partisan tactics are underway by certain House Democrats to undermine American values and traditions that have been cherished and practiced here since the time of our founding.

As we finally begin our committee work in the 116th Congress, I am proud to serve again on the Judiciary Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee. We have just begun the process of adopting our committee rules there, and today, we were issued a list of proposed rule changes that the Democrat majority and the Natural Resources Committee will apparently push through at our hearing tomorrow.

Among the radical new changes to the rules is a stunning action to remove the phrase, ``So help me God'' from the oath taken by witnesses before they testify to Congress. Did you hear that? Let me repeat it. Among the radical new changes in our committee is a stunning action to remove the phrase ``So help me God'' from the oath taken by witnesses before they testify to Congress.

This latest example of the aggressive surge to the far left that we are seeing has to be stopped. This new agenda is threatening the very fabric of our Nation. Throughout America's history, our Presidents and elected officials have taken a solemn oath of office including the words, ``So help me God.''

This goes back to our founding. Since the Judiciary Act of 1789, every justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and all lower-court judges have taken an oath of office which concludes with the same phrase and, of course, every court of law across this land, in every one of them, all witnesses have always been sworn in for testimony with those same concluding words.

For more than two centuries, immigrants from all around the world have come here and taken America's oath of allegiance to become naturalized citizens which also concludes with the phrase, ``So help me God.''

Madam Speaker, some of our Democrat colleagues need to be reminded of our history. Why did the Founders institute this practice? Well, let's remember what they said. Our first President, George Washington, was the Father of our country. And in his famous farewell address, he gave his advice that echoes down through the generations to you and to me as the elected Representatives of the people. He said, famously: ``Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.''

John Adams was our second President. He came next. What did he say? He said: ``Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.''

In other words, what these two Founders and their fellow patriots all understood from our history, was that there are many important rules and practices that can help sustain and build a healthy republic, but the key they said, the essential foundation of a republic has to be a common commitment among the citizenry to the principles of religion and morality and accountability to God himself.

The Founders acknowledged this self-evident truth that all men are created equal and that God gives all men the same inalienable rights. However, they knew, that in order to maintain a government ``of the people, by the people, for the people,'' as Lincoln later said, those inalienable rights must be exercised in a responsible manner.

They, thus, believed in liberty that is legitimately constrained by a common sense of morality, and a healthy fear of the God who granted all men our rights.

The Founders understood that all men are fallen and that power corrupts. They also knew that no amount of institutional checks and balances or decentralization of power and civil authorities would be sufficient to maintain a just government if the men in charge had no fear of eternal judgment by a power higher than their temporal institutions.

That is just a quick review of our history, but that is the reason we conclude our oaths in this country with the phrase ``So help me God.'' Heaven help us if we ever forget that obligation.

Inscribed on the third panel of the Jefferson Memorial right here in Washington, D.C., just a few blocks from here, is his sobering reminder to every single one of us as American citizens. He said this, it is right there on the wall: ``God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.''

Madam Speaker, I just want you to know and I want the American people to know back home here on the night that should have been the State of the Union Address, as we talk about the State of our union, I want you to know that we are going to fight this radical rules change tomorrow in our committee because it matters. And we will continue to raise the alarm about the dangerous leftist agenda that is taking hold here in this Congress.

While I am at it, I would be remiss if I did not note, Madam Speaker, that this is not the end. The radical agenda is advancing in State legislatures now as well.

Last week, New York's Governor signed the infamous Reproductive Health Act, the RHA, into law. This bill's extreme provisions eliminate protections for the unborn, endangering the health of mothers, and eliminate New York's few remaining safeguards for developing human life.

As enacted, the RHA establishes the fundamental right to abortion. It permits nonphysicians to perform abortions; it repeals State protections for children born during an abortion; and it eliminates all fetal homicide provisions. The bill's broad health exception allows for an abortion at, literally, any point in their pregnancy.

Look, this measure is unconscionable. It is disturbing. And we expect our friends and all people of good conscience--even on the other side of the aisle--to condemn this outrageous attack on the vulnerable.

Madam Speaker, we are forgetting our history. We have to remember why we as Americans believe in the sanctity of human life.

I will conclude with this, by just reminding us, again, that our Founders openly acknowledged, they broadly proclaimed what has been called the American Creed. It is listed in the second paragraph of the Declaration that ``we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,'' and that God is the one that gives us our rights, and our rights are unalienable. The first listed is the right to life.

Have we thought about why the Founders said that? Because they understood that every single person is made in the image of God. And because every person is made in the image of God, every single person has inestimable dignity and value. Your value is not related in any way to where you grew up or the color of your skin or how intelligent you may be, what your talents are, what you make for a living. Those are irrelevant. Your value is inherent because it is given to you by your creator.

Madam Speaker, I conclude with this: As we reflect upon the State of the Union, the state of the Union is strong in so many ways, but we have our challenges. Among the challenges is an assault, an aggressive agenda to remove and erase these critical and important foundations.

So here on the People's Night, here in the people's House, we want to remind the people of what is happening on our watch. We will stand against these things. We will continue to defend what is best about our American traditions, and we are honored to have that opportunity.

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