On the recordApril 1, 2011
I thank the gentlewoman from New York. I have been listening to this debate about the Constitution. I am proud to serve in a body that has such respect for the Constitution. Yet I couldn't find this provision that was applicable today until just a moment ago. Apparently, my friends on the other side of the aisle are using a special April Fool's edition of the Constitution that has the following provision in it. It says: When a majority party in the House of Representatives is immovably committed to shutting down the government unless the President of the United States and the United States Senate get on board with their plan to destroy 700,000 jobs and cripple the Nation's economic growth, that House majority can simply deem their plan the law without a vote by the Senate or the signature of the President, as they are null and void. There you have it, Madam Speaker. What we've clearly seen here is that my colleagues are so bent on adding 700,000 Americans to our unemployment lines that they can simply declare the Senate of the United States and the President of the United States null and void. This bill tramples on our Constitution. It is bad political theater. I urge my colleagues to oppose it.
