[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 161 (Wednesday, December 8, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H8092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONSTITUTION HOUSE RULE RESOLUTION

  (Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, as founder and chairman of 
the Congressional Constitution Caucus, I rise this morning to urge 
support of my resolution to restore the preeminence of the Constitution 
in lawmaking.
  My resolution requires that all House bills appropriately cite an 
enumerated power in the U.S. Constitution. If a bill did not 
sufficiently cite that justification, it would be subject to a point of 
order, and it could not be waived by the Rules Committee.
  Some of my colleagues might claim that all legislation is 
constitutional as long as it provides the general welfare clause 
reference. But our Founding Father, James Madison, who was the Father 
of the Constitution, said in Federalist No. 41: ``For what purpose 
could the enumeration of particulars be inserted, if these and all 
others were meant to be included in the preceding general power?'' In 
other words, Mr. Speaker, why does the Constitution list specific 
powers in article I if every conceivable law is basically fair game?
  I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense resolution.

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