[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4] [House] [Pages 4593-4594] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]POWER GRAB AND USURPATION OF STATES' RIGHTS The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I continue to sound the battle cry on this, because since 1913, the States have had no way to prevent usurpation of States' rights; they have had no way to do anything about unfunded mandates that were crammed down their throats. [[Page 4594]] The Constitution itself provided for that in that it said the State legislatures would select the U.S. Senators. As long as that was the case, every U.S. Senator knew if they created an unfunded mandate, if they took away States' rights or did anything to harm the States' power that was granted to them under the United States Constitution, they would yank that Senator back, and he would never come back to the U.S. Senate and would probably never get elected to the House of Representatives. But that was the check and balance that the brilliance of the Constitution provided. Since 1913, when that was repealed through the 17th Amendment, there has not been any check or balance on our power grab and usurpation of States' rights. It's time to do something about it, and we saw that by the unfunded mandate requiring billions of dollars that could bankrupt our States being shoved down their throats by a bill that was signed into law today. The way that can be handled is under article V. It's the part of article V that has never been used before, and that is the part that says that if two-thirds of the States--that's 34--make an application to the Congress for a convention to make amendments to the Constitution, it has to be provided, and then you have a convention and you create an amendment, one or two, whatever is necessary, to finally put back in place, after 97 years, a check and balance on this body usurping powers granted to the States and reserved to the people. It's high time that's done. It doesn't need the President's authorization, so there's no need for an override of a veto if he doesn't let it happen. We will probably need people who would be open to that idea in charge here in this House, but it needs to happen so that we don't keep this train running so fast down the track the wrong way that it derails and takes the Nation with it. We cannot continue this kind of unfunded mandate. It's time for an amendment to the Constitution to put a check back on our unbridled usurpation of States' rights, and I look forward to that happening. We've got 39 States that want to do something about this unholy bill that was passed. Well, this is what they can do, and we can change things and get back on track. ____________________