[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 333]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        READING THE CONSTITUTION

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, in just a few minutes my colleagues and I will 
be following a tradition that we began when Republicans regained the 
majority in 2011 of reading the Constitution during the first week that 
we are back into session. I think this is a very important tradition 
that we have established here in the House of Representatives.
  Our Speaker reminded us the other day that this is the first time in 
the history of the country that this has been done. This is our third 
Congress in a row to do this.
  All of us, or almost all of us, carry a copy of the pocket version of 
the Constitution with us to remind us why we are here and what 
undergirds everything that we do in this House and in this Congress.
  In the front of the copy I have, it says, ``The Declaration of 
Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment,'' 
and there is a quote from Alexander Hamilton: ``The sacred rights of 
mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty 
records. They are written, as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of 
human nature, by the hand of divinity itself; and can never be erased 
or obscured by the mortal power.''

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