[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 11, 2003)] [House] [Pages H5251-H5252] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] CONTROVERSY INVOLVING TEXAS LEGISLATURE The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I find it a little astounding that I come here to ask the question of what is happening to our government. Why are our fellow citizens withholding information from us, even from Members of Congress? Why are some of the agencies that are designed to help us seemingly working against us? It is all our government. I am a little bit astounded at having to come here and again tell the story about what happened when the Texas legislature ran amuck, when members of that legislative body began to respond to actions there that have been reflective of what the United States House of Representatives has been, very divisive, very unfortunate, where people get to the point where they feel like they are not allowed to be a part of the process and they have to rebel against the system by looking for parliamentary procedure to try to send their point or make their point or get their message out. Fifty-five brave men and women allowed their backs to be pushed up against the wall for months and finally could take it no more and broke the quorum of the Texas legislature to stop that from happening there. And then, lo and behold, what happened following it started all sorts of things to happen that include Federal agencies becoming involved in investigations to look for missing Texas legislators. The people of this country ought to be outraged that Federal agencies designed to protect us, designed to do good for us, were called into a political fray in the State of Texas, and since that time Members of Congress have asked repeatedly of the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the transportation agency for information that would give us a better understanding of who played what role in this Federal Government being involved in an issue that was a political one in the State of Texas and finding funds that we know are already very short for us. We do not know how we are going to be paying for all of the many, many needs that our homeland security faces. We are very short-funded as it is. Yet we could find the money, the time, the effort, the personnel, the equipment to track an airplane across the country of a member, a little cotton farmer out in west Texas who was going off to Ardmore, Oklahoma, and stopped off to see his mother. If he had not done that, they would have probably found him. To have agencies respond in the way that they have, there is something wrong with this picture. The people of this country truly ought to be outraged. It has been over 3 weeks now since we began to ask formally of these agencies, give us the information that you have, show us surveillance tapes, give us tapes of phone messages. Even the Director of Homeland Security indicated that it was a potential criminal investigation that is going on and that was the excuse for not turning over some of this information at the time. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us as a body, as a Congress, to stop this [[Page H5252]] kind of action in the United States of America, whether it happens to Texas or Louisiana or Michigan or any other State in this Nation, and we truly ought to be outraged and stand up and say we are not going to stand for that secrecy anymore. Let the agencies that exist as a part of our government give us the information that we need to know that our government is working in our behalf and not working against us; that we are not having some kind of a political soiree in this country that is going to allow power to be held by a few at the expense of so very, very many. We even had destroyed documents over time. What is there to hide? If there is nothing on the tapes that is incriminating to anyone, then make it public and let us see them. If there is something there, as certainly the indication is starting to be--why else is there a cover- up--then perhaps there may be criminal activity. Something is wrong with this picture and something is going wrong with our government. It is time for us to begin to ask the questions and demand the answers from all of the agencies that can tell the citizens of this country that we are not going to be living in a police state, that we are going to be able to all participate in making the policy of this Nation and the policy of our States, and that we are not going to have to fight our way through the darkness of night in order to play the role that we so rightly deserve. ____________________