Jim Baird: “On the one hand, the opponents of this legislation argue that we must have elected representatives. On the other hand…”

“On the one hand, the opponents of this legislation argue that we must have elected representatives. On the other hand, they suppress the rights of those elected representatives to speak to their own legislation. I want to take a little bit of time, if I may, to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Cox) for their outstanding work on the Working Group. I would like to commend the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson); the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) for his intelligent and thoughtful comments; the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin); the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) for her leadership on this issue, the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) for his work on presidential succession matters. I would also like to commend the work of the Continuity of Government Commission. We have spent 90 minutes on this issue today. The Continuity of Government Commission spent virtually a year on the matter.”