[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 25, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3899]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENATE SHACKLES DEMOCRACY

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, as we approach Memorial Day, 
we should recognize that the honor of our men and women in the United 
States military should be a yearlong event.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to question the idea of democracy as 
articulated by the United States Senate. President Lyndon Baines 
Johnson indicated that a man cannot finish a race if his hands and feet 
are shackled. The furlough of democracy took place in the United States 
Senate.
  The compromise on the filibuster is really an extinguishing of 
democracy. It is now extinct because now there is an override, if you 
will, on whether or not men and women can rise to the floor of the 
Senate and express the views of the minority, not a minority of African 
Americans or Hispanics or others, but simply the minority view. That is 
what democracy is.
  It is an outrage that any qualification would be put on the rights of 
those in the United States Senate whom happen to be in the minority to 
speak on the issues of concern. The judges that will receive a vote 
today have great opposition from many in this country. Now the 
filibuster is not in place, because it has be limited, and now 
democracy has been shackled and tied.

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