[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10170-10171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HOUSE RULES OR RULES FOR RADICALS?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, on the afternoon of June 22, a large 
number of Democrats brought the deliberations of the House of 
Representatives to a standstill in one of the most disgraceful and 
childish breaches of decorum in the history of this institution. In 
complete contempt of this House and the rule of law, they shouted down 
all with whom they disagreed. They blocked access to the microphones as 
Members sought to address the Chair, and they illegally occupied the 
Hall of the House, forcing an early adjournment and costing this House 
three full days of legislative deliberations.
  Abraham Lincoln said it best: ``There is no grievance that is a fit 
object of redress by mob law.''
  What we saw was the mob law of Occupy Wall Street brought to the 
House floor. They are seeking to use the recent terrorist attacks as 
justification for making it harder for law-abiding Americans to defend 
themselves. That is a strange logic, but so be it. They certainly have 
a right to their opinions. They have a right to express those opinions 
on the House floor, and they have a right to use all of the procedures 
of the House to act on their opinions. What they do not have is the 
right to prevent those with different views from exercising the same 
rights, and yet that is precisely what they did.
  These Democratic Members have many procedures and opportunities to 
bring their bills to the House for a vote. They could have executed a 
discharge petition to bring their bill immediately to the floor. They 
could have moved to have their bill inserted into any bill pending on 
the House floor, a common motion that we routinely hear and vote upon 
several times a week.
  The fact is their proposals were considered in the Senate and voted 
down. Their proposals were considered in the House committee and voted 
down. Their discharge petition is pending at this desk right now, 
awaiting enough signatures to execute it. Their only problem is they 
don't have enough votes. Well, sorry, that is called democracy. The 
majority of their colleagues simply disagree with them for some very 
good reasons.
  Their rights were honored and protected by the Republican majority 
under the rule of law, yet they denied those same rights to others by 
replacing the rule of law with the rule of the

[[Page 10171]]

mob; and they did so on the most sacred ground of our democratic 
Republic, the Hall of the House of Representatives.
  Instead of working within the time-honored rules of the House to 
convince the majority of their way of thinking, they decided to tear 
down the rules. This was the lawless left on full display, and I hope 
the American people took a long, hard look at it and understand the 
threat to our democratic traditions and institutions that this conduct 
reveals.
  In recent days, we have seen leftist mobs assembled under a foreign 
flag violently attacking American citizens who were merely trying to 
exercise their right to peaceably assemble to support their candidate 
for President. We have seen this administration attempt to criminalize 
political dissent and use our institutions of government to intimidate 
people out of participating in our political process. And now we have 
watched this lawless behavior imported onto the floor of the House of 
Representatives.
  The House leadership decided not to confront this unprecedented 
spectacle as it unfolded, and I do not gainsay their decision here. It 
was obvious the Members involved were trying to provoke a physical 
confrontation, but serious damage was done that day to our orderly 
process of government and it cannot go unchallenged. Doing so would 
establish a dangerous and corrosive precedent, antithetical to 
everything which this institution and our country stands for.
  The Constitution provides that the House may sanction Members for 
disorderly behavior, and the Members responsible for the events of June 
22 and 23 must be called to account for their actions. If we fail to do 
so, we will have replaced the House rules with rules for radicals.

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