[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 73 (Thursday, May 15, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H4177-H4178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TEXAS REDISTRICTING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to follow my colleagues from the 
Texas congressional delegation who have just previously spoken and also 
prouder to stand up here and be able to speak in behalf of some of my 
colleagues who are serving in the Texas House of Representatives, my 
constituents in the Ninth Congressional District of Texas, people like 
Joe Deshotel, who is a former vice president of Lamar University in 
Beaumont; Allan Ritter, who owns a successful lumber company in 
Nederland, Texas; and Craig Eiland, who is a successful attorney on 
Galveston Island, all honorable members of the Texas legislature, which 
is a citizen legislature, not a full-time legislature like our Congress 
is. I am so proud of them.
  As we heard my colleagues say in the last few minutes, these ladies 
and gentlemen have stood up for principle, and it is magnificent to see 
their unity and their willingness to put their political lives on the 
line. They put Texans before their own personal political ambitions, 
and I am proud of them for doing the right thing. The real victims of 
this redistricting plan that is before Texas is not the members who 
hold those seats right now but it is the communities, certainly not the 
Members of Congress who may be here. The fight is not about Nick 
Lampson. It is not about the Democrats or the Republicans. It is about 
the people of Texas who deserve to be represented fairly and fully in 
Washington, D.C.
  Jefferson County, Chambers County, Galveston County, the areas that I 
represent along the upper Texas gulf coast, have been in the same 
congressional district for over 3 decades. They have in common the size 
of their communities, the large petrochemical industry, and interests 
which run throughout that area, coastal and water transportation 
industries and a whole lot more beyond that. Splitting these counties 
apart and even further splitting Jefferson County and my hometown of 
Beaumont itself dilutes the strength of the interests and the ability 
of the people who live there to be represented as those citizens want 
to be represented. Splitting these communities is in a sense a 
disenfranchisement of the people within those communities.
  This fight, however, is about more than redistricting. It is about 
the infusion of partisanship that exists in Washington, D.C., into the 
Texas legislature. I am absolutely astounded to learn of some of the 
things that I have heard in the last several days following the action 
of those brave Texas legislators who chose to go across the Texas 
border into Oklahoma. I am astounded at the fact that my friend Craig 
Eiland, that State representative that I just mentioned, his wife, 
Melissa, who has recently had twin babies who were born prematurely and 
are in the hospital in Galveston, knowing that State law enforcement 
officials were directed by the Governor of our State and by the Speaker 
of our House to go and question the nurses in that hospital, wanting to 
know the whereabouts of State Representative Craig Eiland. And even 
after it was published in the newspaper that our legislators were in 
Ardmore, Oklahoma, they went to Craig's wife's home where Craig was not 
there and harassed her about his whereabouts, when their babies are in 
the hospital being treated.
  We are seeing an abuse of power. We are seeing an abuse of Federal 
resources even. The fact that Federal resources, according to the 
newspapers in Texas, the homeland security agency had an airplane that 
was tracked. The airplane belonged to a cotton farmer/State legislator, 
citizen legislator, Pete Laney. It was through the information that our 
United States Federal homeland security agency gave to the State of 
Texas that led to the whereabouts of our legislators who were trying to 
send a message to the Speaker of the House and to the Governor of 
Texas. We used the wrong kind of resources because interestingly enough 
about 2 miles from here down the road stands a hotel called the 
Watergate, a place of historical significance and a symbol of the use 
of Federal law enforcement resources for private political gain. I am 
not sure where Tom DeLay stays when he is in Austin, but maybe someday 
that hotel will carry the same significance as Watergate. It might 
remind us all of the outrageous diversion of Federal law enforcement 
authorities to pursue Democratic legislators.
  I am proud of these folks who stood up in Texas. When we shut out the 
interests of the people because of partisan politics, it is the people 
who are the ultimate losers. The people of Texas are not losers.
  It might remind us all of the outrageous diversion of federal law 
enforcement authorities to pursue Democratic legislators who fled to 
Oklahoma
  In this current time when we face the threat of terrorism, asking the 
Department of Justice, Homeland Security and the FBI to participate in 
personal politics is despicable

[[Page H4178]]

  When we shut out the interests of the people because of partisan 
politics, the people are the ultimate losers
  This is the people of Texas versus one man
  Lest someone think that all is well in the U.S. House of 
Representatives, please consider that the level of frustration has hit 
a new low. Long-serving members tell us story after story of their 
being shut out of the legislative process which in turn causes the loss 
of voices of millions of American citizens. We need real leadership 
here. People who will reach out and heal the divisiveness, people who 
are willing to change the direction that our legislative bodies are 
going.
  I repeat: When we shut out the interests of the people because of 
partisan politics, the people are ultimate losers.
  This is the people of Texas versus one man. Tom Delay's interests 
cannot and will not be allowed to win out over the interests of the 
good people of the great State of Texas.

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