Accomplishments of the 110th Congress

Floor Speech

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 110TH CONGRESS -- (House of Representatives - October 31, 2007)

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Mr. ELLISON. Thank you, Congressman Klein. Whether it be from Colorado to Vermont, from Kentucky to Tennessee, to Minnesota, to Florida, no matter where we come from, this freshman class that we belong to is here to stay and here to say, very clearly, that we are reclaiming the coequal branch of this legislative body in our constitutional framework. We don't have another branch of government which we take orders from. We don't have to prove patriotism by servile behavior towards the executive branch. We stand up with doing our constitutional responsibility, and our only boss is the American people, not the President, not the courts.

Article I states, all legislative power herein granted shall be vested in the Congress of the United States. Part of that power is, of course, passing laws and, of course, all of you, my fine colleagues, have made it clear that we have been productive, we have been busy, we have been putting up the fight, and we have been passing legislation that this President should sign and, in fact, in many cases has signed. But we have also done something else which I am proud of, and that is provided oversight. We have subpoenaed people and made them come to these hearings. We have asked people the questions, the tough questions, and made them give forth the right answer.

Why, on the Judiciary Committee just this week, we had Mr. Tanner, who is the section chief of the voting section. He offered the opinion that, actually I wish I had it written down, because I don't want to get it wrong, but he offered the opinion that voter ID bills may affect seniors because they live longer, but when it comes to minority seniors they die, so it doesn't really matter for them. Chairman Conyers issued that request for him to come to that committee, and we asked him questions about voting rights. We asked him about how that department was being run. We asked him the tough questions that Americans expect us to ask.

But that's not all. Chairman Nadler of the committee has had constitutional hearings, and we have had people come in and talk about important issues, and, of course, Representative Cohen has been there as well, on Guantanamo, on habeas corpus. These are the kinds of things that Americans are concerned about because America will never be a place where we give up on our constitutional protections and our civil liberties.

I just want to say that I am so proud to be a Member of this freshman class that is not only passing legislation, not only standing up for its right as a coequal branch of government, but is calling people on the carpet and asking the tough questions as it is our job to do. The American people expect us to say, What's going on? Tell us what's going on. What have you done? Why have you done it?

That is our job, and we will continue to do it, because we don't work for anybody but for the American people. Not the judiciary. Not the executive branch. We are enshrined in article I of the Constitution, coequal branch of government, that branch of government in which all vested power to legislate is inside of us.

Mr. Klein, I want to thank you for conducting yet another excellent freshman hour.

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