[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H841-H842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DELEGATE VOTING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the time and the 
opportunity to talk with my colleagues about an issue that is of 
tremendous importance to us. It is certainly one that I have heard from 
from my constituents in Tennessee's Seventh Congressional District. 
They are quite concerned about this. It seems that all of a sudden last 
week, outside of regular order, outside of the normal committee 
process, an old idea resurfaced and came before this body in the form 
of a piece of legislation that is not going through regular order, is 
not going through the committee process. And I had many constituents 
who were quite concerned about this, and how could a bill that is 
important to us, important to our Nation, important to our structure 
and our way of governing come before us without people being aware? 
This issue is the issue of delegate voting. We are going to hear more 
about this today and tomorrow. Then the Democrat majority is going to 
push this to the floor for a vote so that they can circumvent what is 
the constitutional underpinning of this great Nation.

[[Page H842]]

  Now, we as Republicans believe in the constitutional principle of one 
person, one vote. We think that that is important. It is important to 
adhere to that, that everyone is equal under the law. Everyone is 
entitled to their vote, everyone is entitled to that representation of 
one person, one vote. And to change that principle and allow delegate 
voting would require an amendment of the Constitution. That is not a 
statement that comes only from me but the Democrats can look at their 
former Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, who is on record in 1970 when 
this old issue came up at that point. In 1970, former Speaker of the 
House Tom Foley, a Democrat from Washington State said, and I am 
quoting, it is very clear that a constitutional amendment would be 
required to give delegates a vote in the Committee of the Whole, which 
is the full House.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, this act by the Democrats is nothing more than an 
unconstitutional power grab that they want in order to be able to 
further their agenda. So we feel that it is important to stand against 
this. We feel that it is also important that we look at the 
Constitution, when it says that the House shall be composed of Members 
chosen by the people of the several States, not delegates representing 
the non-State territories. There is a distinction here. There is a 
bright line here.
  We also feel like that it is important to note that this plan would 
run over that tenderly held principle of one person, one vote. The 
average congressional district has approximately 650,000 people. Mine 
in Tennessee has a little bit more than that. We know that Speaker 
Pelosi's has 640,000 people. But we also know that American Samoa has 
57,000 people, the Virgin Islands 108,000, and Guam 155,000. So the 
Delegates that represent those numbers of individuals could vote to 
raise your taxes, but--and this is another point that concerned my 
constituents--they would not have to pay them. So their Delegates can 
vote to raise the taxes of my constituents in Tennessee but those 
Delegates' constituents wouldn't have to be paying the taxes. They get 
benefits, they want a vote, they want to use that money. They are just 
not having to pay the taxes.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I do believe that this is something that many 
people would say, well, if we're going to have equity under the law, if 
they're not going to have to pay though those taxes, if they're going 
to have a Congressman for 57,000 people and they have their vote for 
57,000 or 108,000 or 155,000, then why don't we just change the rules 
for everybody? The answer to that, Mr. Speaker, we know is because this 
Constitution means something. This is a Nation of laws. It is a Nation 
that is built on the rule of law. And to give Delegates the right to 
vote is inappropriate. It is a circumvention of our law. It is a 
violation of our Constitution.
  Now, we know that the Democrat leadership is trying to ram this 
through the House and there are some reasons for doing this. They feel 
like they can literally do it on the sly this week. Tonight is the 
State of the Union. They feel like they can do this in the shadow of 
the State of the Union without going through the process of the 
committees, without going through the process of amending the 
Constitution. We also know that they would choose to do it before they 
establish regular order.
  Mr. Speaker, you know, we have not been in the committee process. The 
committees have not been functioning. We have been having bills come 
straight to the floor without the due diligence and the oversight that 
is done by the committees. We know the Democrats would choose to 
circumvent that process and pass this before regular order is 
established. It is an issue of great concern. I appreciate very much 
that my constituents have been involved in the issue.

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