On the recordJuly 17, 2014
I have a festival of charts with me, not because they are pretty, not because they are attractive, but because I have something very important I want to talk about today, and I just can't do it without the direct quotes. I want to talk about the separation of powers. If you will remember the conversation that the gentleman from Massachusetts had--he was down here on the floor with the gentleman from North Carolina--they were talking about constitutional powers. They were talking about what we need to do in this body to fulfill our constitutional powers. It is hard. I don't envy them at all, Mr. Speaker. I come down here, and folks at home always ask about this time at the end of the day. They say, What goes on in that time? I say, Well, they yield time for long periods, about an hour at a time. They will yield Members time to come down here and debate the issues of their choice, but your job of sitting there as the impartial observer while anybody says ``goodness knows what'' down here on the House floor is a hard, hard job--a hard job. I didn't want to come down here today and try to come up with something that was divisive, that would try to get you out of your chair, that would try to bring your gavel down on me. I wanted to come up with something today that would be something that we could agree on as a people. Now think about that. I don't know what your understanding is, Mr. Speaker, of who we are as a people.…
