Henry Hyde

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning). (Mr. BUNNING asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the distinguished whip.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), a distinguished member of the committee. (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske). (Mr. GANSKE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and I have?

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt). (Mr. BLUNT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Steve Buyer), a distinguished member of the committee.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon). (Mr. WELDON of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), a valued member of the Committee on the Judiciary. (Mr. GOODLATTE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas), a very valuable member of the committee. (Mr. GEKAS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella). (Mr. FOSSELLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns). (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth). (Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on House Resolution 581.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gallegly). (Mr. GALLEGLY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Bono).

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Rogan), a member of the committee.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis). (Mr. LEWIS of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am very sorry that the gentleman feels he is shortchanged in the debate. As the gentleman knows, under the rule and under the Rodino format, they were entitled to 1 hour. We doubled that. I did not think that was fair, but we could have gone on and on, and much of the same thing said over and over again. It would be too much for me to expect appreciation for doubling the time, but the hostility? Let me suggest to Members who think this is going on like Tennyson's brook, just on and on and on, the 20th amendment to the Constitution says that ``Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the third day of January.'' We are out of business at the end of the year. Our money runs out. And if we are to continue, if there is anything to continue, we would have to reconstitute ourselves. I do not want this to go one day longer than it has to. Believe me, this is very painful and I want it ended. We are not going to go on and on and on. But Mr. Rodino faced up to the problem of time limits and here is what he said. And why do you reject Mr. Rodino time and again in all of these issues? He is our model. He is the one we are following. And here is what he said: . . . the chairman recognizes, as the committee does, that to be locked in to such a date would be totally irresponsible and unwise; the committee would be in no position to state at this time whether our inquiry would be completed, would be thorough, so that we could make a fair and responsible judgment. We are not flying by the seat of our pants. We are riding on Pete Rodino's shoulders. That is why we can see so far. As far as standards are concerned, something that you have repeatedly brought up, let me quote from the wonderful report by the Rodino committee concerning the Nixon impeachment on the question of standards. Listen to Mr. Rodino: Similarly, the House does not engage in abstract advisory or hypothetical debates about the precise nature of conduct that calls for the exercise of its constitutional powers; rather, it must await full development of the facts and understanding of the events to which those facts relate. That is what we want to do, develop the facts through an inquiry. On with Mr. Rodino: This memorandum offers no fixed standards for determining whether grounds for impeachment exist. The framers did not write a fixed standard. Instead, they adopted from English history a standard sufficiently general and flexible to meet future circumstances and events . . . Thus spake Peter Rodino, and that is our model for this adventure, this excursion, this journey that we are on. Now, look, this is not about sexual misconduct any more than Watergate was about a third-rate burglary. It was about the reaction of the Chief Executive to that event. Nixon covered it up and got in the direst of trouble. The problem with the Clinton situation, President Clinton's situation, is a reaction which we believe and we want to find out, and if we do not get the information we will reject it, caused him to lie under oath. Now, lying under oath is either important or it is not. If some people can lie under oath and others cannot, let us find out. If some subjects are ``lie-able'' that is, you can lie about them, and others are not, let us fine tune our jurisprudence that way. But if the same law applies to everybody equally, that is the American tradition, and that is what we are looking at. This has not anything to do with sex. It has a lot to do with suborning perjury, tampering with witnesses, obstructing justice, and perjury, all of which impact on our Constitution and on our system of justice and the kind of country we are. The President of the United States is the trustee of the Nation's conscience. We are entitled to explore fairly, fully, and expeditiously the circumstances that have been alleged to compromise that position. We will do it quickly, we will do it fairly. We want to get this behind us and behind the country and move on. But it is our duty, it is an onerous, miserable, rotten duty, but we have to do it or we break faith with the people who sent us here. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered. Motion to Recommit Offered by Mr. Boucher

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I move a call of the House. A call of the House was ordered. The call was taken by electronic device, and the following Members responded to their names: [Roll No. 496] Abercrombie Ackerman Aderholt Allen Andrews Archer Armey Bachus Baesler Baker Baldacci Ballenger Barcia Barr Barrett (NE) Barrett (WI) Bartlett Barton Bass Bateman Becerra Bentsen Bereuter Berry Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop Blagojevich Bliley Blumenauer Blunt Boehlert Boehner Bonilla Bonior Bono Borski Boswell Boucher Boyd Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brown (CA) Brown (FL) Brown (OH) Bryant Bunning Burr Burton Buyer Callahan Calvert Camp Campbell Canady Cannon Capps Cardin Carson Castle Chabot Chambliss Chenoweth Christensen Clay Clayton Clement Clyburn Coble Coburn Collins Combest Condit Conyers Cook Cooksey Costello Cox Coyne Cramer Crane Crapo Cubin Cummings Cunningham Danner Davis (FL) Davis (IL) Davis (VA) Deal DeFazio DeGette Delahunt DeLauro DeLay Deutsch Diaz-Balart Dickey Dicks Dingell Dixon Doggett Doolittle Doyle Dreier Duncan Dunn Edwards Ehlers Ehrlich Emerson Engel English Ensign Eshoo Etheridge Evans Everett Ewing Farr Fattah Fawell Fazio Filner Foley Forbes Ford Fossella Fowler Fox Franks (NJ) Frelinghuysen Furse Gallegly Ganske Gejdenson Gekas Gephardt Gibbons Gilchrest Gillmor Gilman Gonzalez Goode Goodlatte Goodling Gordon Goss Graham Granger Green Greenwood Gutierrez Gutknecht Hall (OH) Hall (TX) Hamilton Hansen Harman Hastert Hastings (FL) Hastings (WA) Hayworth Hefley Hefner Herger Hill Hilleary Hilliard Hinchey Hinojosa Hobson Hoekstra Holden Hooley Horn Hostettler Houghton Hoyer Hulshof Hunter Hutchinson Hyde Inglis Istook Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jefferson Jenkins John Johnson (CT) Johnson (WI) Johnson, E. B. Johnson, Sam Jones Kanjorski Kaptur Kasich Kelly Kennedy (MA) Kennedy (RI) Kennelly Kildee Kilpatrick Kim Kind (WI) King (NY) Kingston Kleczka Klink Klug Knollenberg Kolbe Kucinich LaFalce LaHood Lampson Lantos Largent Latham LaTourette Lazio Leach Lee Levin Lewis (CA) Lewis (GA) Lewis (KY) Linder Lipinski Livingston LoBiondo Lofgren Lowey Lucas Luther Maloney (CT) Manton Manzullo Markey Martinez Mascara Matsui McCarthy (MO) McCarthy (NY) McCollum McCrery McDade McDermott McGovern McHale McHugh McIntosh McIntyre McKeon McKinney McNulty Meehan Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Menendez Metcalf Mica Millender-McDonald Miller (CA) Miller (FL) Minge Mink Moakley Mollohan Moran (KS) Moran (VA) Morella Murtha Myrick Neal Nethercutt Neumann Ney Northup Norwood Nussle Oberstar Obey Olver Ortiz Owens Oxley Packard Pallone Pappas Parker Pascrell Pastor Paul Paxon Payne Pease Pelosi Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Petri Pickering Pickett Pitts Pombo Pomeroy Porter Portman Poshard Price (NC) Quinn Radanovich Rahall Ramstad Rangel Redmond Regula Reyes Riggs Riley Rivers Rodriguez Roemer Rogan Rogers Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Rothman Roukema Roybal-Allard Royce Rush Ryun Sabo Salmon Sanchez Sanders Sandlin Sanford Sawyer Saxton Scarborough Schaefer, Dan Schaffer, Bob Scott Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Shadegg Shaw Shays Sherman Shimkus Shuster Sisisky Skaggs Skeen Skelton Slaughter Smith (MI) Smith (NJ) Smith (OR) Smith (TX) Smith, Adam Smith, Linda Snowbarger Snyder Solomon Souder Spence Spratt Stabenow Stark Stearns Stenholm Stokes Strickland Stump Stupak Sununu Talent Tanner Tauscher Tauzin Taylor (MS) Taylor (NC) Thomas Thompson Thornberry Thune Thurman Tiahrt Torres Towns Traficant Turner Upton Velazquez Vento Visclosky Walsh Wamp Waters Watkins Watt (NC) Watts (OK) Waxman Weldon (FL) Weldon (PA) Weller Wexler Weygand White Whitfield Wicker Wilson Wolf Woolsey Wynn Yates Young (AK) Young (FL)

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HYDE. I would like to point out to the gentleman that the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) also pitched a perfect game when he was in the major leagues.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.