Celebrating the 221st anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, it is truly an honor to be able to be here today and speak on the anniversary of our Constitution. On this day, 221 years ago, the Constitution of the United States was signed in Philadelphia. Today we honor the hard work and commitment of the 42 delegates to that Constitutional Convention. In retrospect, the accomplishment of those delegates continues to grow and sets a bar for legislative effectiveness for nations all over the world to try to equal.

When I go out and talk to school groups about serving in Congress, I always use the Constitution as my point of reference, and I try to point out to them what a radical idea this entire country is and was. At the time that we sought our independence from Great Britain, no people in the world had ever sought to set themselves up in the way our government did. The Constitution is the basis of all that has helped make us and keep us great.

The Constitution signed that day contained only 4,400 words. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. Yet in those few words, the framers laid out a plan for self-government which has insured American liberty, adapted to technological and cultural changes, and expanded civil liberty in this Nation over the past two centuries.

I also point out to those school children that in my opinion the most important words written, outside the Bible, are the words ``We the People'' which begin the preamble to the Constitution, because, again, that was a radical notion in those days.

The delegates who gathered in Philadelphia faced a daunting task. The Nation had already experienced failure in the form of the Articles of Confederation which did little to unify the States into a coherent national unit.

So the question was certainly an open one: Could these delegates, who came from every corner of the Nation and every walk of life, find a new way to create a functioning, unified nation while still respecting the rights and needs of each individual region and State?

They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. The form of government developed by these delegates wasn't perfect, but the foundation they laid sustained us through wars and times of internal tumult.

The question for all Americans today is, what can we learn from the accomplishment of the framers of our Constitution?

Certainly they taught us there's no shame in contending forcefully for your convictions. But they also taught us that the discipline of respect for your adversary and the virtue of understanding how and when to strike the best compromise possible are the foundations of civil discourse. These are lessons every American would do well to remember.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to my distinguished colleague from the State of New Jersey and the author of this resolution, Mr. Garrett.

Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate the comments by both of our colleagues from New Jersey, and I am very grateful for the leadership that Congressman Garrett has given to us in the Constitution Caucus.

I want to say that, as I've said before, I often speak to school groups, and when I do, I always make sure that I use the Constitution as my beginning point. And one of the things that I talk about is the fact that the article I, which enumerates the power of the Congress, is not an accident. The Framers of the Constitution, the Founders of this country, wanted the majority of the power to remain within the elected bodies, and particularly in the House of Representatives, which is

elected every 2 years, and we're known as the people's House.

I want to say that I agree with my colleague from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) that one of the major problems that exists in this Congress now is the fact that we seem to have ignored amendment 10 of the Constitution, which says, ``The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.''

I think that one of the reasons some of our colleagues believe that we've abrogated our responsibilities of oversight to the executive branch, which the Framers never expected to be very powerful, is that we have become engaged in way too many things in this Congress and we can't stick to our knitting. We don't look after the things that we should be looking after because we're doing the things that the States should be doing and that the people should be doing, and if we would adhere to the Constitution, we could do a much better job of what we came here to do or at least what many of us came here to do.

So I would say that the problem is within the Congress itself because we don't leave enough time to do the things that we should be doing and that are given to us by the Constitution, and we get involved in doing things that the States should be doing and the people themselves should be doing.

And certainly, the bill last night that was passed on this floor is an excellent example of that, and I thank my colleague for bringing it up as an excellent example.

I reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. Speaker, I do want to talk a little bit more about this issue of the Constitution and the problem that we're having again right now with our not adhering to our responsibilities in this Congress.

Article I, again, is what gives power to the Congress. There's nowhere in the Constitution where the President has the power to do what we should be doing right now, which is opening up the supply of oil and gas for the people of this country.

We have that power. Day after day, night after night, members of the other party come to the floor and blame our sitting President for every ill in this country. Unfortunately, we simply cannot pass off our responsibilities for the things we should be doing and blame them all on the sitting President. My guess is he's going to be blamed over and over and over for probably a long period of time for those things.

But the American people are smarter than that. They know that the Congress itself has the responsibility for doing many of the things that we do not do, and again, the bill yesterday is an example of that.

We had a great opportunity to pass a bill yesterday that would have created more American energy, but my colleagues on the other side don't seem to be in favor of more American energy. They seem to be anti- American energy, just as many other things that they support seem to be anti-American power and anti-American control.

We can completely eliminate our dependence on foreign sources of oil, and we should be doing that, but we aren't doing that. I urge the American people to pay attention to who is in charge of the Congress right now and say to your Members on the other side, we want you to bring real bills, not sham bills, not illusory bills, but real bills to the floor to be voted on.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr. Speaker, I thought I had been addressing my comments to the Speaker.

I want to say, again, that I thank the gentlemen from New Jersey for bringing this resolution, H. Res. 1356, to the Congress today to vote on. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

I thank the gentlelady for her shepherding this through. She should get a gold star for all of her work on the floor today. I also thank the Chair and the ranking members for helping facilitate this bill going through committee and now coming to the floor today.

As was already indicated, today, September 17, marks a very important anniversary, the signing of our Constitution 221 years ago. Our Founding Fathers in this country came together in an attempt to form something, form a more perfect union, to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity.

I'm honored to be the sponsor of this resolution, which recognizes those 39 extremely brave men who gave all they had in signing our Nation's founding document. Too often, we forget not only the names of these men but the challenges that they faced and what they put at risk when they came together to do this.

For example, our Founding Fathers originally met in Philadelphia to rework the Articles of Confederation. That was the document, you see, which had governed the country after the time of the War of Independence, and really, no one was expecting them to draft an entirely new system of government. And yet, that's what they did, and none of them were certain at that time that this new document would be ratified at all, and I doubt they even recognized the ingenuity of their final product.

Yet today, here we are over 200 years later. I think we really take our system for granted and I hope this resolution in some small way will help remind us that the Constitution is a profound document. Our prosperity today and over the 200-some-odd years is built upon the stability of the Constitution. And our posterity to the future has to thank the liberties and freedoms that are set forth and guaranteed in this document.

We see other nations around the world have followed in our footsteps by promoting the principles found in our U.S. Constitution, and although it's already been pointed out the U.S. Constitution is a relatively short document, the Founders really get too little credit for their clear and clever direction in it. They intended to set up a Republic of essentially sovereign, self-governing States, with a very small and central but limited government, operating under clearly defined, and as they say, limited powers.

It was James Madison who wrote in the Federalist Papers at No. 45 that: ``The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.''

Every time any Member of Congress comes to the floor and they take out their card, about to vote on a particular piece of legislation, they should do what we're doing right now, and that is to reflect upon the U.S. Constitution. And they should be asking themselves is what they're about to vote on constitutional.

The gentleman from New Jersey--I'm pleased to see him on the floor with me tonight--raised some of those very same questions. And in light of his comments, I guess we should all have raised those questions last night, as well, as we dealt with the energy package in legislation that came through this House, because, as I indicated a moment before and as, actually, the gentleman from New Jersey already indicated, we were breaking away from Britain at that time to provide the liberties and the freedoms here for the respective States in this country through the War of Independence and then established here in the Constitution. So, too, did our Founding Fathers intend those rights would, as they indicated with Federalist No. 45, remain with those States.

What we did last night was abrogated those rights, took away those rights from them, from the respective States, to a very basic source of income and power to those States, to direct what should become of their futures with regard to an important issue such as energy. Legislation that we did last night put on severe restrictions as to the 50 States, at least our coastal States, as to what they can do and what remuneration they might see if they did take particular action with the developing resources, in this case, energy resources, within their States.

And so although a lot of the discussion yesterday was on the political ramifications and some of the discussion was on the environmental ramifications, I'm not sure that there was any discussion on the constitutional implications of what was done yesterday and whether we, as Members of Congress, as we took our card and put it in there voting ``yes'' or ``no,'' were considering whether we had the constitutional authority actually to take those rights away from the people that we represent back at home in our respective States, whether we had the constitutional authority to say to those States, no, we're prescribing, no, we're placing limits on your ability to have freedom and prosperity for this generation and future generations, as well, by the limits Congress is placing on them.

As the founder and chairman of the Constitution Caucus, I urge my fellow Members here in Congress today going forward then to renew our dedication to faithfully fulfilling our responsibility to the U.S. Constitution. Likewise, I encourage all Americans to take the time today and throughout the rest of the year to reflect upon this important doctrine, to reflect upon the U.S. Constitution, to ensure that freedoms set forth in it, the rights that are set forth in it, are preserved today and for our posterity.

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important piece of legislation because we not only recognize the Constitution of the United States, but we do what President Clinton said just a few weeks ago in Denver, and that is, that we will be known by the power of our example, rather than the example of our power. This is what makes America the greatest country in the world.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate both the signing of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of the document that each of us pledge to uphold and defend when we take our oath of office.

And I am proud to wear this every day by my heart, as with our great patriarch in the Senate, Senator Byrd.

Alexander Hamilton once said, ``The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.''

The Constitution upholds our rights. We are given these rights by our Maker. That's what makes us all equal at birth, regardless of our religious background, our ethnicity or anything.

Hamilton understood that the rights our founders enshrined in the construction come not from men but from God. That's what makes us all equal, not the Constitution.

Today, 221 years after its signing, public school students across the country will be studying the history of the Constitution. They will learn about James Madison, the father of the Constitution and his vision for the Federal Government. They will learn about the separation of powers into a legislative branch, and executive and judiciary branches, and they will learn about the checks and balances designed to keep one of those departments, one of those areas, those branches from growing too powerful.

Hear me, Mr. Speaker. These are the enduring principles that have stood the test of time. They've become the inspiration and the basis for the governments of countless countries around the globe.

Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if, on this day when we celebrate this Constitution, I did not discuss the willful disregard for the fundamental principles of our Republic that we have seen over the last 8 years.

Today we have an executive that has disregarded the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution that have sustained our government for the past two centuries. They have shown complete contempt for article I, section 8, which defines the powers of the Congress in their management of the war and of our economy. I am sad to say that we all have allowed this power to be ceded, both sides of the aisle. Neither party has been a sentinel of our precious Constitution.

We have seen nothing but obstruction in our attempts to perform meaningful oversight of our Federal Government.

The administration's secrecy and unwillingness to cooperate with the Congress' constitutionally mandated oversight powers have reached the point of

ridiculousness. We have actually had to sue the Federal Government-- hear this--the Congress had to sue the Federal Government because they refused to comply with duly authorized subpoenas. This is not a respect of the Constitution. This is a disregard.

The fourth amendment bans ``cruel and unusual punishment'' and the fourteenth guarantees ``due process under the law.'' Sadly, America is now seen as a country that will hold detainees indefinitely and torture them without bringing charges.

The Constitution prohibits ``unreasonable searches and seizures,'' yet we do know that this administration established a program to secretly wiretap on Americans who did no harm to their country, who love their country.

Today, the Congress honors the Constitution. Over the past 8 years, it seems like the Executive has forgotten even its existence. This is not hyperbole. This is documented. The redactive administration has corrupted the ideals of our forefathers. They fondled fear to cover up their addiction to secrecy and will be held accountable soon.

The Constitution belongs to neither political party, neither party, nor is it a document to be possessed solely by the President's attorneys. The most egregious apologists of the constitutional interpretation are those down at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who thought it was the throne they were defending.

The Constitution truly completed our separation from Great Britain, thank God. We are no longer their possession, nor are we the possession of the executive branch of government. We will be known by the power of our example, and not the example of our power.

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1356) celebrating the 221st anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today marks the 221st anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the document that is the basis for our country and the government it is built upon. House Resolution 1356, as introduced, is designed to pay tribute to this historical event.

The supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, thereby replacing the Articles of Confederation. Shortly after the signing of the Constitution, each State held individual conventions in order to ratify the document in the name of the people.

Since its inception, the Constitution has been amended 27 times, with the first 10 amendments, of course, being our Bill of Rights and other significant amendments, including the 13th amendment abolishing slavery, the 14th amendment which bestowed the right of due process upon all citizens, and the 19th amendment which forbid the denial of the right to vote based on gender.

Mr. Speaker, much can be said about the growth and development of our Nation and the fact that through all of it, whether in times of peace or war, the U.S. Constitution has withstood the test of time. On this, the 221st anniversary of the signing, let us stand in unison, putting aside our partisan distinctions and differences in order to celebrate, as Americans, strong and mighty, the framing document of our country, the U.S. Constitution.

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for offering this measure, and I am sure my colleagues will join me in supporting the passage of House Resolution 1356.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), who brought this forward for us to debate today, to have 5 minutes of time.

I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask if you heard that the gentlewoman said that the Democrats on this side of the aisle were anti-American.

Yes.

The last speaker just referred to the Democrats, including myself, as anti-American. Is that a custom and usage of this House to refer to one another in such a manner?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank both of the gentlemen from New Jersey for discussing the Constitution today.

Today, we, as Members of Congress, have seen the streets around the Capitol and the Halls of Congress filled with young school students, the very future of our country. They're here to learn about our Government and to better understand our Constitution. So let us, we, who have the honor to represent the people, join together in unison for support for House Resolution 1356.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1356, Celebrating the 221st anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America and honoring the efforts of the 42 delegates who attended the majority of the Constitutional Convention meetings and the 39 signers, introduced by my distinguished colleague Representative Garrett. This legislation acknowledges the significance of the ideals established by the Constitution, including the principle of a limited Federal Government with a system of checks and balances, and recognizes the Constitution as the source responsible for our Nation's ability to withstand calamity and preserve stability.