[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2810]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    THE HOUSE HAS GONE HOME WITHOUT PASSING THE PROTECT AMERICA ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is now 12:17 p.m. This House 
came into session today at 10 a.m., 2 hours and 17 minutes ago. Across 
this Nation, many folks at work are taking a lunch break, others are 
probably preparing to go to lunch. Those on the second shift are 
getting ready to go to work. Those on the night shift are resting or 
sleeping so they can recover from last night's work and get back and do 
it again tonight. So, where's the House? Mr. Speaker, the House has 
gone home. The House has gone home.
  Today, we dealt with seven resolutions, seven suspensions, seven 
bills that I think every person voted for completely, entirely. I don't 
mean to belittle these resolutions, five of them were to name post 
offices, United States Post Offices. And although that's not the most 
important thing we do, we honor individuals when we do so, and the 
individuals who were honored today were certainly deserving of that 
honor. Two other resolutions were to determine what the Congress will 
do with the United States Capitol during next year's Presidential 
inauguration.
  Now, why is this important? Well, it's important because the Protect 
America Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, has been 
allowed to expire by this leadership, by the Democrat leadership of 
this House. Thirteen days now we've been blind, a unilateral 
disarmament of this Nation in our war on terror. You don't have to 
believe me, Mr. Speaker. A newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts, 
yes, Springfield, Massachusetts, said, ``Led by Speaker  Nancy Pelosi, 
the House let a crucial deadline come and go without even taking a vote 
on the matter. And it didn't have to be this way. Both parties in the 
Senate cooperated, setting aside their differences to try to keep the 
citizenry safe. The House should have done the same thing. Only our 
enemies gain from this kind of political gamesmanship.''
  Mr. Speaker, many Members on our side of the aisle have come to this 
well and to the microphones over the last 5 or 6 days that we've been 
in session and talked about the extreme importance of making certain 
that the Protect America Act is passed. I was on a radio station this 
morning in our good State of Georgia, and people on the radio show 
couldn't believe that the House had let this opportunity, this 
responsibility go. The folks in my district in the 6th District in 
Georgia believe that the primary responsibility of every single Member 
who has the privilege of serving in this House is to protect our 
Nation.
  Many Members of the House travel to Iraq, back and forth to Iraq, 
some who went just last week and were told by generals in Iraq that not 
passing the Protect America Act 13 days ago has led to a decrease in 
their actionable intelligence in Iraq already. Don't let anybody tell 
you, Mr. Speaker, that this hasn't put America at greater harm in the 
last 13 days because it has.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for this House to act responsibly. It's time 
for this Speaker and this Democrat leadership to stand up and make 
certain that we pass the Protect America Act.

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