Melvin Watt: “I just want to submit to the Speaker that this debate is about yielding unprecedented authority to the Speaker of the…”

“I just want to submit to the Speaker that this debate is about yielding unprecedented authority to the Speaker of the House. The Speaker's integrity, the person to whom we are proposing to yield that authority, his integrity is at the heart of the matter. If we cannot get to his integrity, then how can we determine whether we ought to be yielding these unprecedented, overwhelming authorities to him? If we do not like what he has been doing, if he has been out disrespecting the House of the United States, then why should we give him some unprecedented authority called martial law? That is at the very heart. His responsibility, his ethics, are at the very heart of the matter. I would submit, Mr. Speaker, that this is germane to the issues and the matter before this House.”