Jerry Nadler

Efforts to attack that independence, as exhibited in H.R. 973, the bill introduced by our colleague from Florida, Ms. Adams, that would ban courts from 'deciding any issue on the authority of foreign law,' should trouble all of us.

But there is nothing new and nothing alarming about justices educating themselves about the laws and practices of other nations.

This bill will, however, deprive women of their fundamental constitutional rights to personal and bodily autonomy.

This bill will not liberate or empower women but will further shackle them.

The measure before us does absolutely nothing to provide women with the tools they need to get adequate prenatal care.

Not since that decision has government ever arrogated to itself the power to decide whether a woman's reason for a pre-viability abortion is satisfactory.

The right to choose is not limited to the right to end the pregnancy but includes the right to become pregnant and the right to bring a healthy child into the world.

Since the gentleman has admitted that the balanced budget amendment would not deliver the pennant to the White Sox or the Red Sox or the Cubs, or, I suppose, the Yankees, there's no argument to the balanced budget amendment. I reserve the…

I now yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson).

Social Security and Medicare will be there unless we pass this balanced budget amendment because this balanced budget amendment will cause the inability to pay for them. The trust fund is amply funded right now for Social Security. I…

Either we will have the discipline to do what we have to or this amendment simply puts those decisions in the hands of a Federal judge, which we don't want to see, I don't think. I reserve the balance of my time.

I would point out that the 49 States borrow for capital budgets. They have balanced budget amendments for operating budgets. This makes no distinction and would not let us borrow ever. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I am proud to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

I would point out that if this amendment passed, we would never be able to borrow money to do the infrastructure that we need. I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi).

It is now my privilege to yield 4 minutes to a member of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal).

I would point out that families are able to borrow to pay for the car and to pay for the mortgage. Under this amendment the Federal Government would never be able to borrow. It's quite different. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the…

I would simply point out that when S&P downgraded our debt, they were so well respected that the interest rates went down and the price of our bonds went up. So much for S&P. I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind).

Reclaiming my time, the gentleman may be correct. I'm not familiar with that case. But cases making these challenges occur all the time. They lose 100 percent of the time, and there's no reason to expect that that will change. So, again…

I would point out that the lawsuit that the gentleman from California referred to lost at the Supreme Court, and that was a number of years ago, which adds to the point that, of course, ``In God We Trust,'' our national motto, is not under…

I thank the Chairman for yielding.

Congress responded swiftly with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or RFRA, legislation that I was privileged to work on when I was first elected to Congress.

That appalling hostility to religious liberty, coming as it did from a Justice who is hailed as an icon of the conservative movement, was truly chilling.

Too often, the rights of unpopular minorities are trampled upon by the majority, and when it comes to religion, everyone is unpopular somewhere.

I am concerned about threats to religious liberty in America, threats from legislatures, from the Supreme Court, from candidates, and from demagogues.

Now my questions. Madam Secretary, do you agree that we need to change to the policies which lead to the repeated transfer of detainees so that we can finally protect their due process rights and improve the efficiency of our immigration…