[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E12]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCING THE CONYERS-SHERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

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                           HON. BRAD SHERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 4, 2005

  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague, 
Congressman John Conyers, the ranking member of the Judiciary 
Committee, in introducing the Conyers-Sherman Presidential Eligibility 
Constitutional Amendment. This Amendment will allow any foreign-born 
person who has been a United States citizen for 20 years or longer to 
qualify to run for President of the United States. Once enacted and 
ratified, this amendment will allow millions of well qualified 
Americans to aspire to our nation's highest office.
  This bill is not about the election prospects of any one man or 
woman. It is about the dreams of all Americans. Every year I visit high 
schools in the San Fernando Valley. I tell those students that America 
is a great country, a land of opportunity. I want to tell them that it 
is also a country where any child can grow up to be President of the 
United States. Unfortunately, for many high school students in my 
district, the fact that they were born in another country is a complete 
and unequivocal bar to the Presidency.
  All American children regardless of where they are born should have 
all the rights and responsibilities of native born Americans. All 
American children should be able to aspire to rise as far as their 
talent, energy and ability allow them, including our nation's highest 
office. There is no good reason to exclude Americans who will grow up 
to attend our colleges and universities, who will protect America in 
our armed forces, or who will work hard and pay their taxes, from our 
nation's highest office. When this Constitutional Amendment is passed 
and ratified each of them will have that opportunity.
  The exact reasons for including the natural born citizen language in 
the Constitution are lost to history. The meticulous record of the 
Constitutional Convention, kept by James Madison, hardly gives it a 
mention. Regardless of that lost reasoning, America is now a nation of 
immigrants. We are a nation that should encourage those who come here 
to aspire to their highest goals and loftiest dreams. Mr. Speaker, the 
Constitutional Amendment Mr. Conyers and I introduce today will make 
some of those dreams a possible reality for the first time in our 
history.

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