Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Removing A Certain Member From Certain Standing Committees of the House of Representatives
Floor Speech
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Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Madam Speaker, this morning, as many of you, I was watching the National Day of Prayer. While watching, I was reading an opinion piece in Baptist News and this message stuck out to me as relevant to today's debate: Whoever has the power, makes the rules; whoever makes the rules, makes them in their favor.
Madam Speaker, I want you to know that I read that before I saw your prayer, which I thought was a wonderful closing prayer.
I would point out, some others who don't share our faith may not. I thought it was wonderful and that is the First Amendment that we get to enjoy in this country, and I thank you for that prayer.
I rise today in opposition to H. Res. 72 and efforts by the majority to remove a member of the minority party from their committee assignments.
This resolution--and I think this is important--was introduced 3 days ago to the Ethics Committee, but it was brought to the floor without so much as a hearing before the Ethics Committee.
Now I want to stress, the past remarks or emojis that you bring up of our colleague do not represent the values of our Conference nor of my home State of Georgia. I expressed that in her primary and I continue to express that today.
But if this was about the remarks our colleague made, you would put a resolution on the floor condemning those remarks. But no matter what those remarks are or how bad they are, she and every other Member in this body should be entitled to due process just as every other American is entitled to due process. And in this case, it would be before the Ethics Committee before it came to the floor of the House.
But let's be honest about what this is.
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Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Madam Speaker, you have a 10-vote margin in this body. This body has 20 standing committees. You created a proxy voting system that allows your Members to stay at home while the Republican Members show up for work and you have another resolution that you haven't discussed yet to remove over 100 Republican Members of Congress, including 6 from my home State of Georgia.
Do you really think that we believe that you are going to stop with the gentlewoman from the 14th Congressional District, Mrs. Marjorie Taylor Greene? We know better. We know better. The truth of the matter is you have got a math problem in passing your agenda.
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