[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 11, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H1731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                            THE RULE OF LAW

  (Mr. WENSTRUP asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. WENSTRUP. In 1788, over 225 years ago, James Madison wrote these 
words:

       It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are 
     made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous 
     that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot 
     be understood. If they be repealed or revised before they are 
     promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man 
     who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be 
     tomorrow.

  Oh, how relevant these remarks are today. Off-the-cuff changes and 
delays to the Affordable Care Act without proper legislative authority 
confuse and confound American individuals and businesses alike.
  We are formed as a Nation of laws, laws crafted by Representatives of 
the people. America achieved great things by adhering to the principles 
of our legal framework. The fundamental genius of the American Republic 
came from the simple, yet absolute, affirmation that we, as a Nation, 
operate by the rule of law, law crafted by the many, not the one.

                          ____________________