E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 157 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011 No. 58 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was human being. I guess nobody wanted to punishment. What makes a search un- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- be the one who was stuck reading those reasonable or a punishment cruel? The pore (Mr. MCCLINTOCK). parts, and I can understand that. document itself doesn’t tell us. The constitutional fundamentalists f But it got me thinking that, lately, there has been a lot of talk about the tell us we should interpret the words of DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO Constitution, and that’s a good thing. the Constitution as they were under- TEMPORE The Constitution is our national char- stood at the time they were written, The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- ter. It protects our basic freedoms, it more than 200 years ago, but they can’t fore the House the following commu- grants power to the government, and really mean that. At that time, all nication from the Speaker: puts limits on those powers. felonies were subject to the death pen- All of us in this body took an oath to alty and flogging was a common pun- WASHINGTON, DC, ishment for crime. Today, we consider May 3, 2011. support it. We should talk a lot about I hereby appoint the Honorable TOM the Constitution, but we should talk such punishments cruel and unusual. MCCLINTOCK to act as Speaker pro tempore about it the right way. Some of my col- The words the Framers chose are not on this day. leagues here seem to think that all we just broad and open-ended. More impor- JOHN A. BOEHNER, have to do is read the Constitution to- tantly, they express basic values. To Speaker of the House of Representatives. gether and we will all see the light; enforce basic values, you need to make value judgments. And value judgments f that the little words on the page will change as the world changes, even answer all of our questions. For them, MORNING-HOUR DEBATE when the underlying values stay the the Framers had all the answers. I same. The Supreme Court has always The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- guess that’s the real reason they didn’t ant to the order of the House of Janu- understood this. want to read the embarrassing parts Almost 200 years ago, the great Chief ary 5, 2011, the Chair will now recog- out loud on the House floor. nize Members from lists submitted by Justice John Marshall made clear that To do that would be to admit that the Court was going to read the broad the majority and minority leaders for the Framers got some things wrong, morning-hour debate. phrases of the Constitution differently that their document was a first draft of than it might read a tax statute or The Chair will alternate recognition liberty, a blueprint for justice, not the between the parties, with each party bailing code. last word. Marshall wrote: ‘‘If we apply this limited to 1 hour and each Member Some call this way of thinking con- principle of construction to any of the other than the majority and minority stitutional fundamentalism. When it powers of government, we shall find it leaders and the minority whip limited comes to the Constitution, fundamen- so pernicious in its operation that we to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall talism is misguided. Let me explain shall be compelled to discard it.’’ debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. why. Marshall and his successors on the f No one doubts that some parts of the High Court understood that when we Constitution are meant to be read lit- freeze the meaning of the Constitution CONSTITUTIONAL erally and rigidly: every State gets two FUNDAMENTALISM in place, we limit our capacity to make Senators. You have to be at least 25 progress as a people. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The years old to be elected to Congress. Cut Progress hasn’t come easy. It wasn’t Chair recognizes the gentleman from and dried. until the 1940s that the Court applied Illinois (Mr. QUIGLEY) for 5 minutes. But in many of the most important the First Amendment’s establishment Mr. QUIGLEY. On the first day of passages of the Constitution, the clause to State and local governments, this Congress, Members took turns Framers deliberately used broad, open- ensuring the separation of church and reading the Constitution aloud on the ended language because they wanted State. It wasn’t until the 1950s in floor of this House. It was a worthwhile their words to be read flexibly as times Brown v. Board of Education that the exercise. changed. Freedom of speech, due proc- Court declared government-sponsored However, some parts were omitted. ess of law—these terms don’t define racial segregation unconstitutional. There was no recital of the Amendment themselves. Not until the 1960s did the Court fi- that established prohibition or the The Fourth Amendment protects the nally represent the principle of one clause requiring fugitive slaves to be right of people against unreasonable person, one vote. And not until the returned to their owners, or the one searches and seizures. The Eighth 1970s did the Court enforce constitu- equating slaves with three-fifths of a Amendment outlaws cruel and unusual tional equality for women. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H2937 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 02:33 May 04, 2011 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A03MY7.000 H03MYPT1 rfrederick on DSKD5P82C1PROD with HOUSE H2938 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 3, 2011 If we interpreted the document in a b 1010 stead, what have they done? They static and literal way, we would find MISPLACED PRIORITIES OF THE voted to end Medicare. That is right. ourselves in a country we didn’t recog- TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS They voted to end Medicare and shift nize. the cost of health care of current and Constitutional fundamentalism The SPEAKER pro tempore. The future seniors onto seniors themselves, makes difficult choices look easy by Chair recognizes the gentleman from in some cases adding nearly $7,000 more papering over the ambiguities of the California (Mr. GEORGE MILLER) for 5 in costs per senior starting in the year document and ignoring the complex- minutes. 2022. They voted to reduce nursing ities of our history. Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. home care for seniors and for the dis- I would much rather acknowledge the Mr. Speaker, let me begin by joining abled. And they voted to make pre- ambiguities and debate and discuss and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle scription drugs for senior citizens more argue about the complexities. I think in praising President Obama and our expensive. it’s significant that when we amend military and our intelligence teams for To make it all worse, at the same the Constitution, we don’t redact the their extraordinary work in the cul- time they voted to end Medicare, they superseded parts. Leaving them in mination of the killing of Osama bin voted to cut taxes for millionaires and serves as an anecdote to collective am- Laden. His death is a very positive step billionaires and give tax breaks to the nesia about our past mistakes; it un- for U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Bin largest oil companies and to extend tax dermines efforts to sanitize our trou- Laden’s death will not erase the pain breaks to companies that ship jobs bled history, as many in power he caused by his evil acts, nor does it overseas and in fact pay no taxes to the throughout the world often do with mean that Americans are not still the American people, no sense of patriot- their own history. targets of others bent on doing us ism for the benefit these companies re- I close with the words of Thomas Jef- harm, but hopefully his elimination ceive by being American corporations. ferson: ‘‘Some men look at constitu- will offer some comfort to the grieving They chose to give them additional tax tions with sanctimonious reverence families all over the world who have breaks, even though they pay no taxes and deem them like the ark of the cov- suffered at his hand and will diminish under current law. enant, too sacred to be touched. Let us the capacity of his network to do us Their choices are clear—dangerously follow no such examples, nor weakly harm. clear. End Medicare and make seniors believe that one generation is not as Mr. Speaker, while Americans are ex- pay more for health care, but give capable of taking care of itself, and or- pressing their appreciation over the giant oil companies and the wealthiest dering its own affairs.’’ death of bin Laden, they remain deeply in our country more tax breaks. Thank you. anxious about our economy. They are One of the bills that they will bring f suffering from high unemployment and up this week will eliminate the ability high gas prices and they expect and of Americans without insurance, in- ALABAMA IMPACTED BY THE need relief. That is why Americans cluding small business employees, to APRIL 27, 2011, STORM must be really scratching their heads shop and to compare health plans in The SPEAKER pro tempore.