[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18942]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               CENSORSHIP

  (Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California asked and was given permission 
to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I serve on the 
Franking Commission for this body. The purpose of the Franking 
Commission essentially is to make sure that government resources are 
not used in a way that would look like it's campaign purposes; that is, 
we are very careful about how many times you use the personal pronoun 
``I,'' how many times you can have your picture in a newsletter. But 
never in the history of this House have these rules been used to censor 
Members from articulating a point of view on an issue that is before 
this House.
  This chart has been introduced into the record, the official record 
of consideration of the health bill before the Ways and Means 
Committee, and yet we have been told by the majority, we've been told 
that it's been taken above the level of those of us on the Franking 
Commission. We've been told that we cannot use this. Why? Because they 
disagree with our opinions expressed herein.
  I didn't know that one of the obligations of the minority was to 
accept censorship because the majority does not want our efforts to get 
in their way of passing a health bill that takes control of health away 
from people and puts it in the government.

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