[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 103 (Thursday, June 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6205-H6206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 PERMISSION FOR SUNDRY MEMBERS TO ADDRESS THE HOUSE FOR 5 MINUTES EACH

  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Foglietta], the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. 
Hilliard], and the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Ehrlich] be allowed to 
address the House for 5 minutes each.
  The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from 
Texas?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER. The Chair, before recognizing the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania [Mr. Foglietta], wishes to make several observations:
  First of all, the Chair announced at the request of the gentleman 
from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] and the committee on trying to help with 
families at the beginning of the year that there would be 17-minute 
votes. The Chair wishes to restate that 17 minutes is a reasonable 
limit, that if Members are in the Chamber, that they should be 
recognized, but the Chair also wishes to observe that on final passage 
on various bills Members who were getting off the elevator on the 
majority side did not get to vote on the final passage of bills earlier 
this year. The Chair simply wishes to reassert and to remind all 
Members we are trying to save time, we are trying to find a way to get 
this House home so Members can be with their families, and, as a 
general principle, that is a reasonable thing to do.
  Second, the Chair has asked the majority and minority leaders to work 
both together and with those Members they wish to appoint to resolve 
the question of committee voting when the House is voting, and 
obviously, having abolished proxy voting, things are a little more 
difficult than they used to be, particularly adding 17-minute votes.
  Third, the Chair simply wishes to reassert what both the majority and 
minority leaders have said. Every Member should have the right to 
participate fairly. Every Member should have the right to vote. This 
body, as a group, should recognize that there have to be some rules.
  The Chair thinks the 17-minute rule reasonably applied is the right 
kind of thing to do, but we will do everything we can, I hope today, in 
what the Chair believes is an action he does not remember was taken 
during the preceding years when I served in this body. The Chair hopes 
that today's effort will be a sign of good faith that we truly intend 
for every Member to have their rights protected.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Foglietta] 
for 5 minutes.

[[Page H 6206]]

  Mr. FOGLIETTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority leader for, first, 
giving me this opportunity to speak and, also as importantly, giving 
this House a right to revote the controversial issue of yesterday 
afternoon.
  Mr. Speaker, I come from the city of Philadelphia. I represent the 
First Congressional District, and in the heart of that district stands 
Independence Hall where the Constitution of the United States was 
written and adopted. The majority and minority leaders both spoke of 
matters dear to them. Let me say that the Constitution of the United 
States of America is also very dear to me.
  The majority leader stated the facts as he knows them. However I was 
the subject, and I was here. The fact is, Mr. Speaker, that I entered 
the Chamber. The gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] was standing 
toward the rear of the aisle, and, as I passed Mr. Obey on my way to 
the well, Mr. Obey yelled out to the Chairman, ``One more vote, one 
more vote,'' which, according to custom over the years, has always 
allowed that Member to cast his or her vote. Mr. Speaker, I was denied 
that right.
  We are talking about the amount of time that was involved. The 
Washington Post timed the vote and found that the vote was called 15 
seconds prior to the expiration of 17 minutes. I ran to the well, wrote 
out my card, handed it to the Clerk. The Clerk actually had the card in 
his hand, and I was then denied to have my vote counted.
  Mr. Speaker, that Constitution of which I spoke gives us as Americans 
some basic inalienable rights. One of the most important, one of the 
most basic of those rights, is the right of every American citizen to 
cast his or her vote, and, as importantly, it was the right, or is the 
right, of every American to have his or her Congressperson vote on 
their behalf in this House.
  Mr. Speaker, I regret that yesterday afternoon over 1 million 
Americans were denied their right to have their Representative cast 
votes on their behalf. One million Americans were disenfranchised by, I 
consider, a disgraceful display of arrogant, unconstitutional abuse of 
power.
  Mr. Speaker, we might try to determine why this occurred. As you well 
know, the vote would have turned had I and the gentleman from Alabama 
[Mr. Hilliard] been allowed to vote. That is one of the reasons. The 
second reason I was not aware of until I left this Chamber is, as I 
left the Chamber, I walked out in front of the Capitol and there saw my 
colleagues from the majority side boarding buses to take them to the 
airport to take them to New York City for a fundraiser. Strangely 
enough, the New York Post, owned by one Rupert Murdoch, states in its 
column that the GOP went to great lengths to make sure that its Members 
got to the Big Apple on time. Was one of those great lengths to which 
the GOP went the denial of Members of the right to vote and the denial 
of American citizens, of over 1 million American citizens, to have 
their Representative cast votes on their behalf?
  I appreciate the fact that we are going to have a revote, and I would 
hope that this incident brings home the message to every Member of this 
House that what we do here is an important part of the American way of 
life. What we do in this body is a right guaranteed by the Constitution 
of the United States, and that constitutional right should remain 
inviolate no matter what the circumstances.
                              {time}  1100

  I would hope that after this incident, every Member will have the 
right to cast his or her votes on behalf of his or her constituents, 
the American citizens.

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