[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       DEMOCRATS' BROKEN PROMISES

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, last year, Democrats promised the most 
bipartisan Congress ever in the history of our Congress. What we have 
seen so far is about as far from that as I could imagine. Not only have 
the rules been broken in terms of bills being rammed through, not going 
through regular order so that there can be debate and discussions, but 
even when there are bills that all Members can support, albeit that 
they are not as strong as we would like, they are mischaracterized.
  Over the weekend, I read most of the debate that went on last week 
about H.R. 476 dealing with ethics reform in the Congressional Record: 
``Please take note. The Democratic leadership of this institution plans 
to clean up the criminal and ethical morass it inherited. This bill is 
a down payment on the new ethical climate control system we are 
building.
  ``The American people deserve to know that criminal unethical 
behavior by any of our colleagues will be punished and that the 
penalties for violating the sacred trust which has been bestowed upon 
us by our voters and the States we represent will be substantive, 
serious and not window dressing.''
  Well, ladies and gentlemen, we passed a bill tougher than the bill 
that was passed last week in the last Congress, and we don't need to 
keep making these kinds of comments if we want a bipartisan 
relationship.

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