[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE CONGRESSIONAL CONSTITUTION CAUCUS

  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time of 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English).
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I am a member of several caucuses here in the 
House. I am very proud to be so. But none of those caucuses, I think, 
are more important than the Congressional Constitution Caucus.
  All of us when we came here took an oath to uphold the Constitution 
of the United States. It is one of the greatest documents ever written, 
and one that has guided this country and stood us in good stead over 
the time that we have been a country.
  The Congressional Constitution Caucus has a statement of its belief: 
We ``will be an effective forum to ensure that the Federal Government 
is operating under the intent of the 10th amendment of our Bill of 
Rights.''
  Those of us on the Congressional Constitution Caucus are very much 
concerned about the overreaching of the Federal Government. I have 
spoken on this issue before, but I think it is important that we 
continue to highlight it for the American people. And I want to read 
the 10th amendment:
  ``The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively, or to the people.''
  These historic words penned by our Founding Fathers, some of the most 
ingenious political minds this world has ever known, set forth an 
important principle. The Federal Government may exercise its specific 
powers listed in the Constitution, and the States and the people may 
exercise all remaining powers.
  Unfortunately, as the authors of the Constitution have long since 
passed, so, too, have many of their foundations for our system of 
government. Between an ever-expanding Federal bureaucracy that for 
decades has crept into many facets of traditionally locally controlled 
government to a Federal judiciary that time and time again completely 
ignores the intent of the 10th amendment, the Federal Government has 
become wildly inefficient and is hemorrhaging tax dollars.
  Our caucus will point out that not only is State and local control 
over programs in line with the Constitution, it is a much more cost-
effective and efficient way to provide many domestic services to 
American citizens. It is imperative that we highlight the need to 
return to a system intended under the reserve clause of the 
Constitution.
  And I want to point out several bills that have been introduced in 
this session that are initiatives we hope that will move us forward in 
this regard. The first one is the Sunset Commission legislation. 
Congressman Kevin Brady has introduced two bills, both of which would 
establish a Sunset Commission to review the continued need for 
executive branch agencies and programs on a regular basis and make 
recommendations to the President to rein in the inevitable mission 
creep.

                              {time}  1815

  Federal consent decree legislation, H.R. 1229. Congressman Roy Blunt 
has introduced this legislation, the Federal Consent Decree Fairness 
Act, that would level the playing field for State and local governments 
faced with activist Federal judges that are legislating from the bench. 
Federal consent decrees can be an effective judicial tool, but too 
often activist judges use them to lock in policy changes long after the 
State or local official that agreed to the decree has left office. H.R. 
1229 would make it easier for State and local governments to amend such 
decrees.
  Local control of education. Congressman John Culberson has introduced 
legislation that would restore State sovereignty over public elementary 
and secondary education in H.R. 3449. The bill would require that a 
State specifically authorize operation of any Federal education program 
for which it accepts Federal funds, waiving the State's rights to act 
inconsistently with any strings attached to that Federal funding.
  I am proud to be a cosponsor on all three pieces of this legislation, 
and in the next few weeks the Congressional Constitution Caucus is 
going to call attention not only to these bills, but others that we are 
bringing to the attention of the leadership and the American people to 
get us back into compliance with the Constitution.

                          ____________________