[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 25 (Thursday, February 14, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H966-H968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     QUESTION OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 
1 of rule IX, I rise to a question of personal privilege.

[[Page H967]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has been made aware of a valid 
basis for the gentleman's point of personal privilege.
  The gentleman from Florida is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, it is with great 
regret, but I must rise today for a question of personal privilege. An 
article appeared today, Madam Speaker, on the Web site of a publication 
called The Politico reprinting a statement by a spokesperson for the 
majority leader of this House describing actions of mine as 
``incomprehensible'' and ``unjustifiable'' and insinuating that I 
purposely brought disrespect to the House and to the memory of my dear 
friend and colleague, Congressman Tom Lantos.
  It was not my actions which were incomprehensible or unjustifiable, 
Madam Speaker, but rather the actions of the majority which deprived 
all Members of this House the opportunity to debate or even consider or 
vote on the contempt resolutions brought to the floor today by the 
majority in an absolutely totally unprecedented fashion.
  The majority knows that the rule we considered earlier is totally and 
absolutely unprecedented. Its sole purpose was to prevent us from even 
debating or voting on these contempt resolutions. And further, the 
majority denied us the opportunity to take up the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Act amendments passed by the Senate, which we feel very 
strongly are in the supreme national interest of the United States.
  The majority knew that the minority was strongly of the belief that 
the only options available to us were procedural votes. The majority 
knew that we intended to utilize our procedural options to register our 
displeasure with this uncalled-for process.
  We purposely refrained from all procedural motions during the opening 
moments of the session today precisely to show respect for our friend 
and departed colleague.
  We were assured by the majority that we would not begin consideration 
of the rule, in other words, that the House would not reconvene until 
11:30 a.m. or the conclusion of Mr. Lantos' memorial service.
  Tom Lantos, Madam Speaker, was an extraordinary man, a great man, and 
he was my friend. It was an honor for me to be present today at his 
memorial service in Statuary Hall. I was suddenly summoned out of the 
memorial service for my friend Mr. Lantos to perform my 
responsibilities as a member of the Rules Committee, to manage the rule 
for the minority side for the contempt resolutions. The majority had 
decided to resume the session during the memorial service.
  Madam Speaker, I am a member of the minority. Neither I nor my 
leadership control when the House convenes. What we saw today was an 
uncalled-for effort by the majority to force the minority to give up 
our rights to protest a process we feel is blatantly unfair.
  The majority's decision to reconvene the House interrupted the 
tribute to my good friend Mr. Lantos. It is the majority that decides 
when to convene the House. It is the majority that chose to convene the 
House even though many speakers remained to speak in the memorial for 
Mr. Lantos.
  I was told by my good friend Mr. Dreier that he does not recall any 
memorial being interrupted by a House session, and he has been here 
more years than I have. I have been here 15, and obviously I don't 
recall any either.
  Madam Speaker, the statement attacking me today by a spokesperson for 
the majority leader was totally uncalled for and unacceptable.
  I yield such time as he may consume to the ranking member of the 
Rules Committee, the gentleman from California.
  Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. And we 
have all come to the conclusion that this has been a very sad day in 
many ways. Of course, the saddest part of it was the loss of our dear 
friend and colleague, Tom Lantos.
  I would simply like to say that Mr. Diaz-Balart had the 
responsibility of serving as the floor manager for a rule that was, as 
he said in his very thoughtful statement, unprecedented. And we had a 
debate on that rule, and this House chose to do something it had never 
done before, pass a rule which took two contempt resolutions and 
adopted them. That was a decision of the House. And I think it was an 
unfortunate one.
  Mr. Diaz-Balart had a responsibility to stand up for this 
institution. He and I stood together at that service, heard from 
colleagues of ours and heard from many other distinguished people who 
remembered the life of Tom Lantos.

                              {time}  1515

  We were stunned when all of a sudden the bells rang and the House was 
going to reconvene in the middle of this memorial service.
  Now, members of the majority staff, Madam Speaker, had been informed, 
had been informed, of exactly what it was that we in the minority were 
going to do. If the House reconvened and we proceeded with 
consideration of this special rule, we had informed the members of the 
majority staff that we were going to call for a vote.
  So Mr. Diaz-Balart was simply working to, under very, very, very 
challenging, and, again, from my perspective, unprecedented 
circumstances, where I had never before seen the House of 
Representatives convened during a memorial service being held in 
Statuary Hall, but under those circumstances, Mr. Diaz-Balart had the 
responsibility to fulfill his duties, not to the Republican Members, 
but to do what he believed to be right, and I agree with him, 
obviously, in upholding the rights of this institution. So for any 
Member, any Member or anyone outside to malign Mr. Diaz-Balart for 
simply doing his job under very difficult circumstances is not right.
  Let me conclude by simply saying that Mr. Diaz-Balart is one of those 
Members who we all know is a fighter for freedom and has been 
throughout his entire life. In many respects, Lincoln Diaz-Balart is 
very similar to Tom Lantos.
  Madam Speaker, I will say that it is a tragic irony that as we are 
remembering the life of Tom Lantos that a Member like Lincoln Diaz-
Balart would in any way be maligned for his work on behalf of the 
struggle for freedom and democracy and the liberation of people all 
over this world.
  Mr. BLUNT. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from 
Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I would say, of course, we come to the floor today with lots of 
disappointment on what we are failing to do today. We think we should 
stay until we get other matters done. But on this issue that relates to 
the activities of the day, first of all, I was at the memorial service, 
as many of you were. I was privileged to be there. Frankly, there are 
very few Members of Congress, in the history of the Congress, that 
could have, on the very short notice that we would have this sad 
service today, would have the Foreign Minister of Israel, the Secretary 
of State, the head of the United Nations, the Speaker of the House 
present. It was an impressive service, and I hate that we are having 
this debate around any lack of respect for that service.
  On the other hand, the only work we had to do today was 1 hour of 
debate on a rule that would then also replace the debate. One hour of 
debate. The service was scheduled to last from 10 o'clock until 11:30. 
It turned out it lasted until 11:50. But it was scheduled to last from 
10 o'clock until 11:30.
  When at 10:45 the majority decides we are going to start the 1 hour 
of work we have to do today at 11, the majority should expect the other 
side to complain. If in fact Mr. Diaz-Balart had not had his objection, 
50 minutes of that 1-hour debate would have gone before I ever walked 
out of the memorial service. The vote lasted 50 minutes, or 
thereabouts. Apparently, Members couldn't even get in to vote for 50 
minutes, let alone to get in to participate in the debate.
  Of course, we should have said, let's not start the debate on the 
only work we are doing today while we are passing up the work on the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We are voting to talk about how 
you can kill rats in the technical correction to the Federal 
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. That is the only debate we 
were going to have during 50 minutes of the

[[Page H968]]

1 hour of the memorial service. And of course Lincoln Diaz-Balart or 
somebody should have stepped up to stop that, and thank goodness he 
did.
  I am really sad that a service we should have all agreed on would be 
the priority of the morning, we couldn't manage for that to be the 
priority of the morning. We had to start the 1 hour of work we had to 
do 50 minutes before that service turned out to end and 30 minutes 
before it was scheduled to end.
  I am regretful that my good friend had to rise to this moment of 
personal privilege, but I certainly support him in seeking this 
privilege and hope that the Members of the House will understand what 
happened here and appreciate the great respect we all have for Tom 
Lantos.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from 
Maryland.
  Mr. HOYER. I rise, as I have a couple of times in the past, to simply 
say that I think on our side, obviously, we believed that we needed to 
move forward on the work. All of us, however, share what has been said 
about Tom Lantos, for whom we had the greatest respect, and we all 
share a sadness at his loss.
  I regret that the actions that precipitated this hour that you are 
taking have occurred. They have occurred. We can't change them. Having 
said that, I want to say that I understand the point the gentleman is 
making, and I understand the point my friend Mr. Blunt has made. I 
think it will suffice to say that. But I can appreciate the position 
the gentleman found himself in and that Mr. Blunt and his leadership 
found themselves in.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Thank you.
  Madam Speaker, I utilized the opportunity of the rules to rise to a 
question of personal privilege due to the statements attributed in the 
press that I mentioned before to a spokesperson, which I stated and 
restated I believe were totally uncalled for and unacceptable.
  I thank all of you for having listened to me with such courtesy. It 
is for someone who arrived as a 4-year-old refugee with his family 
fleeing oppression, an extraordinary moment in the midst of the sadness 
of the day, and the offense that I felt, it is an extraordinary moment 
to be able to rise and invoke the rules of the House to seek the 
attention of the representatives of this extraordinary Nation. So I 
thank each and every one of you for your patience and your courtesy.
  At this point, after thanking Mr. Dreier, thanking Mr. Blunt, and 
thanking the majority leader for their kind words, I simply end 
remembering a friend who everyone in this room can agree enriched our 
lives. My son mentioned the other day this week when we were talking 
about the sad news, he said, Dad, do you remember when I was a little 
kid and you wanted me to get my posture up, what you would tell me? I 
will never forget, he told me. Lantos. Your posture. That is one of the 
first things that impressed me about Tom Lantos, even before I learned 
about his zealous extraordinary commitment to the oppressed everywhere 
where people are still longing to be free.
  So let us all then end this recollection of what I believe was a very 
unfortunate moment remembering someone who we can all agree was 
extraordinary, enriched our lives, and was a great Member of Congress 
and a great American. Thank you all very much.

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