Providing for Consideration of H.R. 37, Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 185, Regulatory Accountability Act of 2015; and Providing for Consideration for H.R. 240, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CULBERSON. Today, Mr. Speaker, the Republican House takes an
important step in restoring the trust of the American people in their
elected Representatives and in restoring the rule of law in our Nation.

Two of the most important principles underlying our entire system of
government are trust and the rule of law. The American people in the
election last November decisively rejected the aggressive, liberal
agenda of this President and of the Democrats in Congress.

They elected this Republican majority to stop the President from
doing further damage to our system of laws and further damage to our
Constitution. The American people elected us to preserve and protect
and defend the Constitution of the United States, but that work begins
with trust.

We, today, are doing what the voters of America asked us to do in
enforcing our laws on the border to ensure that our laws are respected,
to ensure that our immigration law is fair, and that it treats everyone
equally as the Constitution requires.

We are keeping our word to the American people to do precisely what
we said we would do, and that is to overturn these illegal executive
memos that are attempting to ignore what the law says the President
must do. Not even King George III had the authority to waive a law
enacted by the Parliament.

Mr. Speaker, once we have begun this path today of restoring that
bond of trust, we will restore the rule of law in America because,
without the law, there is no liberty.

In fact, the first design on one of the first coins ever minted in
the Republic of Mexico, a coin which I have here with me, shows the
liberty cap--liberty and law. There is no liberty without law
enforcement, and the House today is doing what the American people
hired us to do: to restore their trust and to restore the rule of law.

This is a law enforcement issue. Border security and immigration,
these are matters of law enforcement. We trust the good hearts and the
good sense of the officers in the field to do the right thing for the
right reasons, which is to enforce our laws fairly and equally, because
the people on the Rio Grande understand better than anyone else that if
the law is not enforced, there cannot be safe streets and that you
cannot have good schools and a strong economy without law enforcement.

We in Texas understand better than anyone else that this debate is
far larger than it just being about immigration or border security. It
is far larger than just these individual issues we will debate today.

Today, we in the Republican House are honoring the will of the
American people. We will keep our word. We will make sure that the laws
of the United States are enforced equally and fairly for all.

Above all, we will preserve and protect the Constitution and the
America that we know and love. That was the message of the election
last November.

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