[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 147 (Monday, October 20, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H9704-H9705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  QUESTION OF PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to rule IX, I rise to a question 
of privileges of the House, offer a resolution, and ask for its 
immediate consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the resolution.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                               RESOLUTION

     Correcting the Record of Tuesday, January, 28, 2003.

       Resolved, That an asterisk be placed in the permanent 
     Record of Tuesday, January 28, 2003, noting that the 
     following statements contained in the State of the Union 
     Address by the President of the United States are inaccurate:
       (1) ``The British Government has learned that Saddam 
     Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium 
     from Africa.''
       (2) ``Our intelligence sources tell us that he has 
     attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable 
     for nuclear weapons production.''
       (3) ``From intelligence sources, we know, for instance, 
     that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding 
     documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing 
     inspections sites, and monitoring the inspectors 
     themselves.''
       (4) ``Evidence from intelligence sources, secret 
     communications, and statements by people now in custody 
     reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, 
     including members of al Qaeda.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will hear argument on the question 
of whether the resolution constitutes a question of the privileges of 
the House under rule IX.
  The gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, October 16, I gave notice of 
my intention to raise a question of privileges of the House.
  Mr. Speaker, the first definition of rule IX(1) is ``affecting the 
rights of the House collectively, its safety, dignity, and the 
integrity of its proceedings.'' Rule IX is designed to give Members of 
the House the means to protect the dignity and integrity of this body, 
and that is what my resolution seeks to do.
  I believe that our rights, our dignity, and our integrity are 
affected and are harmed when inaccurate statements are made in our 
Chamber and recorded in our official proceedings without note being 
taken that they are inaccurate. I believe that the integrity of the 
Congressional Record is harmed and the dignity of the body issuing the 
Record is harmed.
  I am aware that it is conceivable that Members of this body may, at 
least in theory, at times make statements on the floor that might be 
shown to be inaccurate. When this occurs, however, other Members have 
the opportunity and the responsibility to engage in debate to identify 
the offending statements. Readers of the Congressional Record, 
citizens, future historians, have the opportunity to learn from our 
debate what is and is not accurate.
  When the four statements I have identified were made in this Chamber 
on January 28, there was no such opportunity to engage the person 
making these statements in debate in order to identify the statements 
as inaccurate as there is normally in the House. Unless we act today, 
when future historians go back to examine our proceedings, they will 
find these four statements presented in the Record unchallenged.
  Normally, dubious statements in the Record are not unchallenged. 
Normally, we collectively take responsibility for the accuracy of the 
statements made in the Record through our debate and discussion. The 
statements of January 28 were made outside the normal process Congress 
uses to identify inaccurate statements. Therefore, the only opportunity 
Congress has to protect the integrity of its proceedings is to identify 
in the Record the statements that are inaccurate.
  I believe that the integrity of our proceedings, as protected under 
rule IX, requires the House to consider my resolution. To fail to 
consider this resolution would leave the implication that these 
statements were of no consequence, or that this body did not care to 
identify them as inaccurate. I do not think we can afford to leave that 
impression in a journal that will be examined in the future as a basis 
for writing the history of our entrance into the war.
  Mr. Speaker, for that reason, I ask that we consider this resolution 
at this time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair is prepared to rule.
  The resolution alleges certain inaccuracies in the address of the 
President of the United States before a joint session of the two Houses 
earlier in this Congress and resolves that those precise statements be 
footnoted by asterisks in the permanent Congressional Record.
  The Chair has examined precedents permitting questions of the 
privileges of the House to address the accuracy and propriety of the 
Congressional Record. In each of these occasions where questions of 
privilege have been permitted, it was alleged that a Member had been 
proceeding out of order, that remarks were improperly transcribed, or 
that unauthorized matter was inserted in the Record.
  On several occasions, the Chair ruled that where remarks that were 
made in order were printed in the Record, collateral challenges under 
the guise of questions of privilege were not in order. (See Hinds V, 
6974; Cannon's

[[Page H9705]]

VIII, 3469, 3498). While the Chair is not aware of any precedent with 
regard to the accuracy of an address by the President of the United 
States in a joint session, the Chair rules that allegations of factual 
inaccuracy in the contents of a speech, as opposed to the fidelity of 
its transcription, whether by the President or by a Member, are matters 
for subsequent proper debate and do not give rise to a question of the 
privileges of the House. To rule otherwise would be to permit 
collateral challenges under the guise of a question of privilege to the 
factual correctness of every word uttered, whether or not alleging the 
unauthorized inclusion of those remarks on the Record.
  The Chair, therefore, rules that the resolution does not constitute a 
question of the privileges of the House under rule IX.


                         Parliamentary Inquiry

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, further parliamentary inquiry.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will state his inquiry.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Is the effect of your ruling that whatever the 
President says must be considered correct since we have no chance to 
debate him, we have no chance to question him?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has ruled that debate over the 
next weeks or months in the House can go to the question of the factual 
accuracy of the previous statements of the President; but it would not 
be proper to do so in this type of resolution or in this form.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. So the body does not have a way to deal with the 
statements made in the State of the Union message? We must accept it, 
and there it is?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The House has the right and the 
responsibility to respond to the President's address during subsequent 
debate.

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