Gilbert Gutknecht: “Reclaiming my time, just to sort of review again all the things we accomplished on that first day, we opened the…”

“Reclaiming my time, just to sort of review again all the things we accomplished on that first day, we opened the committee process so that staff and the press could come, the public could see what was happening in the committee meetings. We mandated a three-fifths vote on any tax increase, and began a comprehensive audit of the House books. For the first time, we are opening up this process to the public, we are going to show our books to the public so people have an opportunity. I do want to yield to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays], the author of the Shays act. Incidentally, I want to reinforce what an important act that was. When I was campaigning last year, I was surprised to learn how many laws that the Congress itself, in fact it had almost become routine for the Congress to exempt itself from the implications of a lot of the laws that they passed against everybody else. I think a big part of changing the attitudes of Members of Congress was to make us live by the same laws that we impose on everybody else.”