And Still I Rise

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, with my mnemonic notes.

And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. I rise because I love my country. And because I love my country, I do not rise with any degree of schadenfreude. I take no pleasure in what this House is about to do. I am not gleeful.

I rise because I believe that we must do what Dr. King called to our attention when he said that, on some issues, you must do that which is neither safe nor politic nor popular. You do it because conscience tells you it is the right thing to do.

I rise to announce that I believe that we are about to do the right thing. And I know that we are doing the right thing for a multiplicity of reasons, one of which is you cannot allow the Chief Executive Officer to send a letter of absolute, intractable defiance indicating that there will be no level of cooperation with the lawful constitutional body that is investigating actions--actions taken by the President.

You cannot allow this kind of recalcitrance to exist, because, if you do, there are no guardrails. We cannot allow a President to move through the land without guardrails. He has to know that there are boundaries.

So I rise to say, today, that this House is moving in a historic direction, that, when it is written across the pages of time that this House took the action that I believe it will take, I think we will all find that it was the right thing to do.

I rise also to say this: The Constitution allows a President to be impeached more than once. If we impeach now or at some time in the near future for one issue that we dearly should, then we find later that the President has other issues that merit impeachment, we can impeach again. There is no limit on the number of times.

I don't think you do it needlessly. Every time I have called it to the attention of this House, there was purpose and reason behind it, and I believe that we can do it more than once if it becomes necessary.

I think the Senate ought to act. I think the Senate ought to convict. But if the Senate does not convict, it does not mean that the House is now hamstrung and cannot move forward again with impeachment.

So I rise with no degree of schadenfreude. I rise with love of country and heart, and I rise understanding that Dr. King was eminently correct: There are times when we must do that which is neither safe nor politic nor popular. We do it because it is the right thing to do.

I rise because I believe we are embarking upon the right course for this House and for our history.

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