[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REGARDING THE RULES OF THE HOUSE

  (Mr. WALKER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, what we have just seen is an act that 
everyone in the House should be concerned about because the rules of 
this House exist in large part to assure the civility of the 
proceedings of the House. They exist to try to make certain that all 
Members are protected and have certain rights.
  These rules are not unique to this Congress. These are rules that the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] regularly voted for when he was a 
Member of the majority. The rules with regard to discussion of matters 
before the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct on this House 
floor have been the heart of the rules for a long time. They are not 
something that this majority came up with. They are in fact the same 
rules that previous Speakers have enforced and have been in place for 
the previous Congresses.
  All Members have an obligation to those rules. When Members think 
that they are above the law and above the rules, that is an 
embarrassment, and that destroys the underlying civility that needs to 
govern our processes here.
  I do not know how we can, as a nation, solve the myriad of problems 
that we have if some Members take it upon themselves to disobey the 
rules. That is what we have seen happening on a regular basis.

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