Jim Sensenbrenner: “I am really sorry that the gentlewoman from Texas and the gentleman from American Samoa have brought extraneous issues…”

“I am really sorry that the gentlewoman from Texas and the gentleman from American Samoa have brought extraneous issues into the debate on whether or not we should give honorary citizenship to the Marquis de Lafayette. This is really something that is very unique. It probably came about as a result of an anomaly in our citizenship laws that have been overlooked for over 200 years, because both Virginia and Maryland, prior to the adoption of the Constitution, granted the Marquis honorary citizenship. I think many people had assumed that that grant before the Constitution was adopted would have sufficed to make sure that his honorary citizenship was valid in the newly United States of America. Unfortunately, it was not, and that is why we are here today. One of the reasons why we have 50 stars in the upper left-hand corner of our flag rather than the union jack was because of the efforts that the Marquis made not only militarily during the Revolutionary War, but in securing the France of Louis the 16th to be on the side of the American colonists in their fight against Great Britain. Without his efforts, both on the ground on this side of the Atlantic and diplomatically in Paris, the revolution may very well have not succeeded. So today should be the Marquis de Lafayette's day. I think that we should have an overwhelming vote in favor of this resolution.”