[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H837-H838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DELEGATE VOTING

  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, what if I were to tell you that 
non-Members of the House of Representatives were about to be given a 
vote right here in the House? You would say no, can't happen, right? 
Well, hold on, because it's about to happen and it's about to happen 
this week.
  This week is a remarkable week; it should be a time of great 
anticipation, the State of the Union, we've got incredible and 
remarkable challenges that face our Nation. But at home, when I go 
home, people are kind of wondering out loud, what's going on up there 
in Washington? There is skepticism about the Six for '06, you know, the 
things that the Democrat majority adopted in their vaunted first 100 
hours, albeit under an unfair process and with no input from either 
their new Members or the minority. Really a clear abuse of power. But 
the explanation was, well, we ran on these issues, everyone knew they 
were coming, they endorsed them in the election.
  Now, regardless of the truthfulness of that statement, most folks 
just kind of shake their head, and most in the press have given the 
Democrats the benefit of the doubt, and that's all right. There is a 
basic sense of, you know, it's tough to believe that they would violate 
so many principles coming right out of the chute.
  And then yesterday we had a suspension bill; that is a bill that is 
brought to the floor of the House that requires a supermajority, two-
thirds, in order to pass. And by tradition, it is brought to the floor 
because it has got an overwhelming amount of support, with the full 
knowledge of both the majority and the minority. And yesterday, a bill 
that virtually everyone here supports, removing Federal pensions from 
Members of Congress who are convicted of a felony, was brought to the 
floor and amended or changed twice within a few minutes before even 
reaching the floor. Now this is fairly esoteric stuff; however, it is 
important because it demonstrates the unfair process, the abuse of the 
rules and the abuse of power.
  And now we have another in what seems to be this daily event of 
power-hungry Democrat majorities to give non-Members of the House a 
vote on this floor. It is a move that they tried the last time they 
were in control, a move that generated some interesting headlines--
``Have the Democrats No Shame?'' ``The Democrats' Greedy Power Grab,'' 
``Power Grab in the House.'' And these are from the New York Times and 
the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post, not this year, but in 
1992.
  Now the issue is whether or not to allow non-Members of the House of 
Representatives, specifically the Resident Commissioner from Puerto 
Rico, and the Delegates from Guam, the Virgin Islands, the District of 
Columbia and American Samoa the privilege to vote during the Committee 
of the Whole on this floor of the House. Mr. Speaker, this is 
outrageous; it is an incredible, phenomenal move in both process and in 
substance.
  Once again, now becoming the routine, this bill, scheduled to come to 
the floor of the House tomorrow, has had no committee hearing, no 
debate, no opportunity to amend, no democracy. I assure you, this is 
not the kind of change that the American people voted for last 
November.
  The Constitution states that the House shall be composed of, quote, 
``Members chosen by the people of the several States,'' not Delegates 
representing non-State territories. It is an unconstitutional power 
grab, a plan that runs roughshod over the constitutional principle of 
one person, one vote. One of these territories has 57,000 residents, 
compared to the 650,000 in my district. These individuals could vote to 
raise your taxes, Mr. Speaker, without paying taxes themselves.
  Clearly the plot by the Democrats is to slip this through during the 
week of the State of the Union when they think no one is paying 
attention. This is an unconscionable action, it is a violation of trust 
and a clear abuse of power.
  Under the Democrat plot and logic, they could seat and allow anyone 
that the majority desires in the House. Who's next, Mr. Speaker? Howard 
Dean? Does he get a vote in the House?
  The American people are disgusted with this level of arrogance and 
abuse of power.

[[Page H838]]

  The oath that all of us took just a few weeks ago, we all pledged to 
uphold the Constitution of the United States; this proposal belies that 
oath.
  I urge my Democrat colleagues to regain some sense of propriety, some 
sense of history, some sense of rectitude. When you trample on the 
Constitution, when you use the Constitution as a doormat and not the 
foundational document of our wonderful representative democracy, you do 
great harm to our Nation.

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