[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4953-4954]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HOW SOON WE FORGET

  (Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam Speaker, how soon we forget. During 
the last congressional session, then-Minority Leader Boehner called 
deem-and-pass bills ``a scheme and a plot,'' one that he has employed 
immediately upon assuming the Speakership.
  It's doubly ironic because this particular deem-and-pass bill is 
blatantly unconstitutional, as it eliminates the Senate and President 
from the legislative process. Article I, section 7, clause 2 of the 
Constitution reads, ``Every bill which shall have passed the House of 
Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be 
presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall 
sign it; but if not, he shall return it . . . ''
  This deem-and-pass spending bill would eliminate the inconvenience of 
the United States Senate passing or the President signing H.R. 1, the 
radical Republican proposals to eliminate 700,000 to 900,000 jobs. 
Whether or not Republicans ram it down our throats today is probably 
irrelevant since it is clearly unconstitutional, but we should vote it 
down as a matter of constitutional principle.

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