On the recordJanuary 9, 2015
In just a few minutes my colleagues and I will be following a tradition that we began when Republicans regained the majority in 2011 of reading the Constitution during the first week that we are back into session. I think this is a very important tradition that we have established here in the House of Representatives. Our Speaker reminded us the other day that this is the first time in the history of the country that this has been done. This is our third Congress in a row to do this. All of us, or almost all of us, carry a copy of the pocket version of the Constitution with us to remind us why we are here and what undergirds everything that we do in this House and in this Congress. In the front of the copy I have, it says, ``The Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment,'' and there is a quote from Alexander Hamilton: ``The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by the mortal power.'' ____________________
