[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  KEEPING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Indiana (Mrs. Spartz) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SPARTZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight an ongoing 
problem with our institution, which starts reminding one of a theater 
full of actors, a circus, or a dog-and-pony show with a lot of 
messaging, grandstanding, demagoguing, talking points, but no real 
results badly needed for the American people.
  When Benjamin Franklin was leaving the Constitutional Convention in 
1787 and was asked what kind of government the delegates had created, 
he replied: ``A republic, if you can keep it.''
  It has been over 200 years since that time, but do we really 
appreciate what it means to have a constitutional republic, the rule of 
law, presumption of innocence, and proper due process?
  As someone who grew up under a dictatorship in the Soviet Union, I 
cherish these freedoms tremendously, and I understand how hard it is to 
get them back when you lose them and how many people have died for 
them.
  Therefore, regardless of politics, I will vigorously defend our 
Constitution and our rights for all Americans. Congress is not a 
kangaroo court and has proper committees, like Ethics or Judiciary, to 
provide proper due process to all individuals, whether it is President 
Trump and Representative Greene or President Biden and Representative 
Omar.
  I adamantly argued last Congress as a member of the Judiciary 
Committee to provide this due process, so I am not planning to become a 
hypocrite now and lose this credibility. We have to become the adults 
in the room and stop the bread and circuses in Congress.
  No one is above the law, but no one is below the law.

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