[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 194 (Thursday, December 5, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H9259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            AND STILL I RISE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, with my mnemonic 
notes.
  And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. I rise because I love my country. And 
because I love my country, I do not rise with any degree of 
schadenfreude. I take no pleasure in what this House is about to do. I 
am not gleeful.
  I rise because I believe that we must do what Dr. King called to our 
attention when he said that, on some issues, you must do that which is 
neither safe nor politic nor popular. You do it because conscience 
tells you it is the right thing to do.
  I rise to announce that I believe that we are about to do the right 
thing. And I know that we are doing the right thing for a multiplicity 
of reasons, one of which is you cannot allow the Chief Executive 
Officer to send a letter of absolute, intractable defiance indicating 
that there will be no level of cooperation with the lawful 
constitutional body that is investigating actions--actions taken by the 
President.
  You cannot allow this kind of recalcitrance to exist, because, if you 
do, there are no guardrails. We cannot allow a President to move 
through the land without guardrails. He has to know that there are 
boundaries.
  So I rise to say, today, that this House is moving in a historic 
direction, that, when it is written across the pages of time that this 
House took the action that I believe it will take, I think we will all 
find that it was the right thing to do.
  I rise also to say this: The Constitution allows a President to be 
impeached more than once. If we impeach now or at some time in the near 
future for one issue that we dearly should, then we find later that the 
President has other issues that merit impeachment, we can impeach 
again. There is no limit on the number of times.
  I don't think you do it needlessly. Every time I have called it to 
the attention of this House, there was purpose and reason behind it, 
and I believe that we can do it more than once if it becomes necessary.
  I think the Senate ought to act. I think the Senate ought to convict. 
But if the Senate does not convict, it does not mean that the House is 
now hamstrung and cannot move forward again with impeachment.
  So I rise with no degree of schadenfreude. I rise with love of 
country and heart, and I rise understanding that Dr. King was eminently 
correct: There are times when we must do that which is neither safe nor 
politic nor popular. We do it because it is the right thing to do.
  I rise because I believe we are embarking upon the right course for 
this House and for our history.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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