The Rule Of Law And The Responsibility Of The House Of Representatives

Floor Speech

The Rule Of Law And The Responsibility Of The House Of Representatives

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Ms. FOXX. I want to thank my colleague from Texas for having begun this dialogue and this talk tonight about the rule of law.

I often say when I'm speaking to groups, particularly of young people, that what has made our country so great are several things, but underlying all of those is the rule of law. I think the three most outstanding are the rule of law, our Judeo-Christian heritage, and our capitalistic society--our economic system. We couldn't have our ability to worship God as we please and our capitalistic economic system if it weren't for the rule of law undergirding those.

When you look at other countries in this world, at other countries in this hemisphere, you will see that Mexico, for example, has been in the news a lot lately. They have many, many natural resources, as we do here, but what has created the problems for Mexico is that it is such a corrupt system. They do not operate by the rule of law. Most Americans just accept what we have in this country as something that exists everywhere. It doesn't. If we allow the rule of law to be torn down, then we really undermine our entire country and our entire culture.

I want to tell a little story, because I agree with Congressman Carter on everything that he has said tonight. None of this is personal. This is all about the very strong and positive feelings that all of us have for the House of Representatives and for our government.

And I may get choked up in telling this story, but it was a great thing that happened today, because it allows me to explain to people why I feel so strongly about what has happened.

I was on my way over here this afternoon a little after 6 o'clock to vote, and I was coming a little bit early, because I like to watch the news at 6 o'clock, and I was coming a little early so I could get in between commercials and watch a little bit more of the news before we had to come in to vote.

But as I was coming up the steps towards the Capitol, I noticed this couple, I don't know their age, I would say middle-age couple, since I don't want to guess people's ages. And I noticed that the woman spoke to one of our great security guys out there. And then I saw her walk up to the Capitol Building, up on the steps, and touch the building and then walk away.

And I could tell that she had asked permission to do that. And so I walked over to her husband and I said to her, Would you all like to go inside the Capitol? And she got very emotional, and she said, Well, you know, we have never been to Washington before. This is our first time here. And she said, All I thought that I had the hope of doing was touching the outside of the building. She said, I just, I don't have the words to express what a thrill it would be to go inside the building.

I asked them if I could use their names, it was Gary and Vicki Klassen from Oregon. And so they said, yes, they would like to come in. And so I brought them up, brought them up into the Members gallery and explained a little bit about the gallery here and told them that we were about to vote. And I explained some things to them and answered their questions and told them that between the first and second vote I would come back and answer the rest of their questions.

And they just kept on exclaiming, We are so thrilled to be in this building. We are in such awe of the building. We are in such awe of our government.

And, you know, I thought, we need more people like that in our country. We need more people who feel in awe of our government. We need people who get a thrill out of walking inside the Capitol.

After voting, I gave them a little bit more of a tour, and they just stayed that way. They were so grateful to me.

But I was grateful to them because when we meet people like that, we need to cherish that because these are folks who understand what this country is all about, and they feel an awe toward their government.

And I don't want people to stop feeling that way. And if we as Members of Congress don't uphold the highest standards amongst ourselves, then the majority of the people will stop feeling that way about our country, and we will lose our country.

You know, Mr. Franklin was asked when they signed the Constitution, What kind of country have you given us, and what kind of government have you given us? And he said, A Republic, if you can keep it. Well, if we are going to maintain our Republic, if we are going to maintain what's good about this country and we are going to maintain the rule of law, then we cannot have a double standard.

I agree with the President in his comment: we cannot have two sets of standards, one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks.

It is bad policy to have different rules for Members of Congress than for the rest of the public. And I have told the people I represent, I will never, ever vote for anything knowingly giving a different set of rules for people in Congress than we have for everybody else. We shouldn't have a double standard. And I am very concerned.

I also point out to people when we come into this room, the ancient law givers whose faces are in profile around the top of the Chamber here, I know C-SPAN doesn't show them. But what I point out to them they are all in profile except one, and that's the one over the center door, and that's Moses looking down on us.

When Moses brought us the Ten Commandments, they weren't divided into A and B. They weren't divided into saying, you know, some people shalt not but others may because they have power. All of those 10 commandments apply to all of us.

And it's very important that we make sure that we pay attention to the fact that Moses is looking down on us every day and that we have a responsibility to the people of this country to live by the laws that have been set for everyone in this country.

And like my colleague from Texas, I have personally a good relationship with Mr. Rangel, as far as I know. He is a very affable person, always smiling or almost always smiling, always jovial. So this is nothing to do with him personally. It is that the Congress and the House of Representatives in particular must abide by our own laws.

And if we establish laws that say, particularly here, that we have to report our income, that we have to report our assets, it is not right for some Members to leave things out and other Members to report everything. We must uphold the rules and the laws.

And so I want to commend again my colleague from Texas for putting together this Special Order tonight. And I know that there are others here who will add to the discussion that we are having.

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