Tom DeLay

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Friday, February 4, 2005, unless it sooner has received a message from the Senate transmitting its concurrence in House Concurrent Resolution 39, in which case the House shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, as we look back through history, there are shining examples of men and women removing a murderous tyrant's regime from power and in its place building a government that represents the will of a free people with the right to choose their own path and control their own future. Iraq is yet another shining example for other oppressed people throughout the world to look to for hope and encouragement. History was made on Sunday, and the American people observed this, knowing that our efforts have created a society of hope and liberty, as well as new friends who share our vision of freedom. Two days ago, millions of ordinary people stood in line for hours for the opportunity to do an extraordinary thing we too often take for granted. For weeks leading up to Sunday's election, terrorists threatened violence upon any Iraqi who defied their will and dared cast a ballot. And sure enough, as soon as the polls opened and the long lines formed, the terrorists came calling. While the troops of our liberating coalition, working closely with newly trained Iraqi forces, sprang into action, capturing and killing the insurgents, the voters waited patiently in line, in humble defiance of evil. For 2 years, America's troops have been deployed abroad, and for 2 years they have served honorably and heroically. Sunday, that service was affirmed by 8 million Iraqis who took it upon themselves to take the next steps towards their freedom. What has been proven in the United States, and now in Iraq, is that a free society will not and cannot be deterred by violence, nor will it be held hostage by the evil will of terrorists. Today the people of Iraq share a common bond with Americans. The experience of freedom and liberty that was born on American soil is taking root in Iraq. But Sunday's elections will not end the violence, nor the sacrifices we will make to ensure the freedom and security of the Iraqi people. I will tell you what is next. Despite the violent days that still lie ahead and despite the partisan rhetoric now being spouted to undermine the significance of Sunday's victory for freedom, the free people of Iraq know the truth. Two years ago Iraq was ruled by a brutal dictator. Just 13 months ago, coalition forces marked the end of the beginning when they captured the brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein. Today, it is a free democracy, an ally in the war on terror, and a lesson to everyone suffering under the oppressive rule of a hostile tyrant. Freedom and terrorism cannot coexist; and last weekend in Iraq, we learned the inevitable result of that conflict. Iraq is free, her people are free, and they will no longer be held hostage by evil men and evil terrorists. Sunday in Iraq history was made by the people who showed up; and by the courage of 8 million patient souls, terrorism was struck another blow. Because of those souls, and all the Iraqi men and women who made Sunday possible, we honor their commitment to freedom and will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for legislative business. We will consider several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list of those bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of the week. Any votes called on these measures will be rolled until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday, the House will convene at 10 a.m. This is a slow time of year, as most committees are not organizing until next week. We anticipate consideration of a resolution that will stress the House's views on the recent court decision regarding the Solomon amendment, but we do not expect to consider any significant legislation under a rule. In addition, I would like to remind all Members that the President's State of the Union is scheduled for Wednesday night of next week. Finally, to accommodate scheduling demands next week similar to those that we have this week, the House will not have votes next Thursday or Friday. I thank the gentleman for yielding and will be happy to answer any questions he may have.

Mr. DeLAY. I know that you and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) are working on this bill and will continue to work on it. It has every possibility if it is done, maybe we could do it next week.

Mr. DeLAY. I am not sure that the White House has even made a decision on when they will send the request for the supplemental to us, or if they will send us one or two requests. I think those decisions are still being made by the White House. Obviously those decisions will help shape how and when we will consider the bill here in the House. At this time I do not expect us to consider the supplemental prior to the President's Day recess, but I would not rule that out, either. We will take the President's request, obviously our Appropriations Committee will do its work, and we will expedite the process and get it to the floor as soon as possible.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday next.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the order of the House by unanimous consent of today varying clause 11(a)(1) of rule X be vacated.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a resolution (H. Res. 51) amending the Rules of the House relating to the composition of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Friday, January 28, 2005, unless it sooner has received a message from the Senate transmitting its concurrence in House Concurrent Resolution 21, in which case the House shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to claim the remainder of the time.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, what is happening here today is amazing but not surprising. Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing here today is a shame. A shame. The issues at stake in this petition are gravely, gravely serious. This is not just having a debate. But the specific charges, as any objective observer must acknowledge, are not. That is because the purpose of this petition is not justice but noise. It is a warning to Democrats across the country, now in the midst of soul searching after their historic losses in November, not to moderate their party's message. It is just the second day of the 109th Congress and the first chance of the Democrat congressional leadership to show the American people what they have learned since President Bush's historic reelection, and they can show that, but they have turned to what might be called the ``X-Files Wing'' of the Democrat Party to make their first impression. Rather than substantive debate, Democrat leaders are still adhering to a failed strategy of spite, obstruction, and conspiracy theories. They accuse the President, who we are told is apparently a closet computer nerd, of personally overseeing the development of vote- stealing software. We are told, without any evidence, that unknown Republican agents stole the Ohio election and that its electoral votes should be awarded to the winner of an exit poll instead. Many observers will discard today's petition as a partisan waste of time, but it is much worse than that. It is an assault against the institutions of our representative democracy. It is a threat to the very ideals it ostensibly defends. No one is served by this petition, not in the long run. And in the short term, its only beneficiaries are its proponents themselves. Democrats around the country have asked since Election Day, and will no doubt ask again today, how it came to this. The Democrat Party, the party that was once an idealistic, forward-looking, policy colossus. The New Deal, the Marshall Plan, the Great Society, the space program, civil rights. And yet today one is hard pressed to find a single positive substantive idea coming from the left. Instead, the Democrats have replaced statecraft with stagecraft, substance with style, and not a very fashionable style at that. The petitioners claim that they act on behalf of disenfranchised voters, but no such voter disenfranchisement occurred in this election of 2004 and for that matter the election of 2000. Everybody knows it. The voters know it, the candidates know it, the courts know it, and the evidence proves it. We are not here to debate evidence, but to act our roles in some scripted, insincere morality play. Now, just remember: pre-election memos revealed that Democrat campaign operatives around the country were encouraged by their high command in Washington to charge voter fraud and intimidation regardless of whether any of it occurred. Remember, neither of the Democrat candidates supposedly robbed in Ohio endorse this petition. It is a crime against the dignity of American democracy, and that crime is not victimless. The Democrat leadership came down to the floor and said this is a good debate; we ought to be having a debate on this issue. This is not a normal debate. This is a direct attack to undermine our democracy by using a procedure to undermine the constitutional election that was just held. If, as now appears likely, Democrats cry fraud and corruption every election regardless of the evidence, what will happen when one day voters are routinely intimidated, rights are denied, or, God forbid, an election is robbed? What will happen? What will happen when, God forbid, this quadrennial crying wolf so poisons our democratic processes that a similarly frivolous petition in a close election in the future is actually successful, and the American people are denied their constitutional right to choose their own President? Mr. Speaker, Democrats must find a way to rise above this self- destructive and, yes, plain destructive theory of politics for its own sake. A dangerous precedent is being set here today, and it needs to be curbed, because Democrat leaders are not just hurting themselves. By their irresponsible tactics, they hurt the House, they hurt the Nation, and they hurt rank-and-file Democrats at kitchen tables all around this country. The American people, and their ancestors who invented our miraculous system of government, deserve better than this. This petition is beneath us, Mr. Speaker; but, more importantly, it is beneath the men and women that we serve. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, to do the right thing. Vote ``no,'' and let us get back to the real work that the American people hired us to do.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 9) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 6, 2005.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during the first session of the 109th Congress, the Speaker, majority leader, and minority leader be authorized to accept resignations and to make appointments authorized by law or by the House.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during the first session of the 109th Congress, all Members be permitted to extend their remarks and to include extraneous material within the permitted limit in that section of the Record entitled ``Extensions of Remarks.''

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 2) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, your committee appointed on the part of the House to join a like committee on the part of the Senate to notify the President of the United States that a quorum of each House has been assembled and is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make has performed that duty.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, it is a peculiar and embarrassing mark of man's fallen nature that so often it takes tragedy for human beings to see past our differences and into each others' hearts. Two weeks ago, a tragedy of incomprehensible magnitude struck our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. It was the day after Christmas, actually, when much of the world was still celebrating, that an earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean set off massive tsunamis that have devastated island and coastal countries in southeast Asia and east Africa. The sum total of those killed, injured, diseased, and orphaned by the tsunami is larger than the populations of many countries. And yet, it is also a mark of the dignity of man that, in the face of such tragedy, we do see beyond our differences--cultural, political, religious--and see to it, with all our strength, that right is done. The tsunami's waters will recede, Mr. Speaker, but the waves of prayers, love, and generous support--already making their way over the ocean--will not. Nor will the attention of the world--nor the attention of this body--until the victim nations recover. As we meet today, millions of people have been displaced from their homes and communities, and millions more are without the basic needs of survival--food, shelter, clean water, and health care. Countless children have lost their parents, and are now at the mercy of, at best, the crippled social institutions of their homelands, and at worst, we now learn, human traffickers. When faced by devastation and misery of this magnitude, when we see the grief of parents who had to choose which of their children to save, or hear stories of entire villages destroyed by the waves, there seems so little we can do. But on the contrary, Mr. Speaker, there is so much we must do. President Bush has pledged $350 million in relief and recovery assistance, dispatched Secretary of State Powell and Florida Governor Bush to the region to assess the situation, and tasked former Presidents Clinton and Bush to lead American fund raising for the relief effort. Thousands of our armed forces and America's civilian relief agencies are already on the scene helping the relief effort-- transporting food, medical supplies, mobile hospitals, and water- purifying equipment to the scene. And the generosity of the American people will continue to lead the way in the recovery, and in the effort to mitigate the long-term consequences of the disaster. The waters will recede, and life will one day return to normal. All humanity's mission is to bring that day about before another life is needlessly lost. And the world should know that the American people and their Congress will help until no more help is needed.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 3) authorizing the Speaker to appoint a committee to notify the President of the assembly of the Congress, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 4) authorizing the Clerk to inform the President of the election of the Speaker and the Clerk, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 5) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) or her designee, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of the resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rules package. I am also rising in support of the historic legislative agenda it will govern, for today marks the beginning of what historians will likely look back upon as the most productive and significant Congress in decades. The mandate granted the majority, evidenced by our increased majorities in both Houses of Congress and the first Presidential majority in 16 years, is clear. The American people have entrusted the state of their security, prosperity and families to us; and over the course of the next 2 years, that sacred trust will be honored by action. We will continue to defend our homeland and prosecute the war on terror without retreat, and without excuses. We will provide our military, and their families, with the resources they need to do their heroic work on behalf of the Nation they serve. We will hold rogue regimes accountable for their mischief, and hold fast to our friends around the world, from defiant democrats in Israel and Taiwan, to longstanding comrades-in-arms like the British and Australians, to our resurgent allies in New Europe. We will work with our ever-expanding coalition of the willing to secure the fledging democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with every political, economic, diplomatic and military tool at our disposal, see the war on terror through to victory. Domestically, our agenda will be no less audacious. We will continue the work begun in President Bush's first term to cultivate an opportunity society of economic choice and independence. We will continue to break down the walls, erected by 40 years of liberal policies, between the American people and their dreams. We will continue to provide seniors with access to affordable, quality health care while empowering them with unprecedented retirement security. We will continue to take on the three-headed monster of over- taxation, over-litigation and over-regulation that cuts the legs out from every sector of our economy. And while the 109th Congress helps increase our national security and prosperity, we will also help American families raise their children in a society defined by the values that made our Nation secure and prosperous in the first place. We will continue to better protect and educate our children, to protect the institution of marriage, to protect the Constitution from judicial activism, and protect the role of family and faith in the public square. This rules package before us now will help us do this important work, work the American people have hired us to do. And yet, rather than laying out a positive vision for the next 2 years, or for that matter even discussing the substance of the rules package itself, some may choose this debate to launch the first of what I imagine will be countless personal attacks against the integrity of the majority and, ultimately, the integrity of this institution. It is a new year, Mr. Speaker, but an old game, and one to which we cannot afford to stoop. Too much is at stake; too much depends on the success of this historic 109th Congress. To my friends on the other side of the aisle, I would remind them all that I know what it means to be in the minority, to go into contentious votes certain of defeat, to always react to an agenda set by opponents. But I must also remind them that when Republicans were in the minority, we engaged in the battle of ideas. We developed, and specifically proposed, a substantive vision for the future of our Nation. In the 10 years since that vision was endorsed by our countrymen, we have been honored to work with all members of the minority on one issue or the other to develop successful legislative coalitions. With our close partisan margins and 24-hour media culture, we sometimes forget we are opponents, not enemies. We would all do well to remember that, especially given the stakes, the significance and, frankly, the sheer weight of the agenda before us. So I urge all Members to support the rules package before us so we can immediately get to work on behalf of the men and women who sent us here. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to once again serve as leader; but even with all of the gratitude I feel toward you, our conference and toward this body, the source of the honor I feel today is not all in this Chamber. The source of the honor each of us rightfully feels today is our friends and families who have given us their love, the American people who have given us their trust, the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line for us every day, and our heavenly Creator who knitted us together in the womb. Mr. Speaker, may God bless the work and workers of the 109th Congress, may God bless the cause of justice and freedom around the world, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the balance of the time allocated to me be controlled by the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier).

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 2) to inform the Senate that a quorum of the House has assembled and of the election of the Speaker and the Clerk, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 872) and ask for its immediate consideration.