[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              AMICUS BRIEF ON BEHALF OF THE U.S. V. TEXAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 639.
  Mr. Speaker, we are a Nation of immigrants. But, more importantly, we 
are a Nation of laws. We are also a Nation governed by a Constitution, 
a Constitution designed by our Founders to protect the people from 
government.
  This same Constitution enumerates specific powers to the executive, 
legislative, and judicial branches, these same powers that this 
President has decided he does not need to uphold.
  As a result, we, as a united legislative body, will act this week 
against the President's executive amnesty and overreach. We must act 
because it is time that Congress--Republicans and Democrats--stand up 
for the Constitution of the United States and against President Obama, 
who has decided to turn his back on the American people.
  We must act because the security and economic opportunity that 
Americans are so desperate for today come with respecting, not 
undermining, the spirit of self-government for which our Nation was 
founded.
  Mr. Speaker, the President knows that he is not permitted to write 
laws. Yet, through his executive amnesty, he is directly attacking 
Congress' Article I power.
  Today Congress will once again say no to President Obama. We will 
come together as an institution representing the American people to 
promote self-government.
  I will vote in favor of the resolution on behalf of the great people 
of Missouri's Second Congressional District and in defense of the 
powerful words of James Madison in 1788:
  ``The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and 
judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and 
whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be 
pronounced the very definition of tyranny.''
  I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution and prevent 
this very tyranny we see today.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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