[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3626-3627]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              TAKE THE PADLOCKS OFF THE WHITE HOUSE DOORS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, Saturday was the day that Lanier 
Middle School students from Houston, Texas, had been looking forward to 
for a long time. They were going to get to see where the President of 
the United States lived. This was even more exciting because it was the 
first time in 5 years that Lanier had been successful in scheduling a 
tour of the White House. Then last week, 2 days before they were set to 
go on their tour, they got the bad news. They were no longer welcome in 
the people's house.
  Mr. Speaker, I know one of the parents of the kids at Lanier Middle 
School. Here's what she said:

       It's disappointing. But it is particularly disappointing to 
     me because I think it teaches the kids a bad lesson of not 
     keeping your word. I think that's bad for the kids.

  Harvin Moore, a trustee from the Houston Independent School District, 
wrote the White House when he got the bad news, and here's what he 
said:

       Next week, 80 students from Lanier Middle School will be 
     spending their spring break touring our Nation's capital.
       They have been planning the trip for a year. They have 
     completed background checks and received confirmation that 
     they would be welcomed to the White House and, as you can 
     imagine, were very excited about that.
       Now we find ourselves in the position of having to explain 
     to them that their plans have been abruptly canceled and they 
     will not be welcome at the White House after all.
       Frankly, that's a hard thing to do as we don't understand 
     the reason ourselves.
       We don't understand why, out of a $1.6 billion Secret 
     Service budget, the administration believes that \1/20\th of 
     1 percent that is required to fund the White House tours is 
     one of the first things to go.
       We don't understand why the administration would choose to 
     cancel the program that touches the public the most, in 
     return for a truly minuscule budget savings.
       We don't understand, Mr. President, why you have chosen to 
     disinvite schoolchildren from their White House.
       The First Lady has referred to the White House as the 
     ``People's House.'' I agree with her. It is the ``People's 
     House--it is our house.''


[[Page 3627]]


  Mr. Moore continued in his letter:

       One Lanier parent described having to tell her son he was 
     no longer welcome at the White House: The word ``sequester'' 
     doesn't mean anything to this student. First Lady Michelle 
     Obama said that the White House is our house. Well, it 
     doesn't feel like it anymore.

  Mr. Speaker, Lanier students from Texas are not alone. Thousands of 
students nationwide are gearing up for spring break, and the cherry 
blossom festival is just a few weeks away. These trips require 
planning, time, and, yes, even money. Bake sales, car washes, parents 
taking time off of work were all involved so kids could come to 
Washington to tour the White House.
  But the President, unfortunately, has punished the people for the 
sake of a few nickels. Perhaps the White House forgot what the First 
Lady has said, which is posted on the home page of whitehouse.gov:

       This is really what the White House is all about. It's the 
     ``People's House.''

  Well, Mr. Speaker, if this is true, the President should take the 
padlocks off the White House doors, put the welcome mat back on the 
front porch, because America's kids should not be evicted from their 
White House.
  Mr. Speaker, the open-door philosophy of the White House is a 
uniquely American idea where the people of the country can come see 
where the President of the United States, the most powerful person in 
the world, actually lives.

                              {time}  1010

  This is uniquely American. You go to other countries and, whether 
they're democracies or not, they don't let you near the home of where 
the head leader lives. But only in America have we done this.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the President to keep his word. 
Let the people back in. And as students come to Washington, D.C., they 
should know that the U.S. Capitol is open for business and that Members 
of Congress, their staff, and the tour guides at the Capitol Visitor 
Center will be glad to take them through the Capitol. In fact, earlier 
this morning, there were about 70 kids from Westchester, New York, 
seated here before we opened for business, getting a history lesson 
from one of our Parliamentarians.
  Mr. Speaker, the Capitol is open, but neither the White House nor the 
U.S. Capitol should ever close its doors and ban the people from the 
people's houses.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________