Hearing of the Committee on Rules
Open Hearing to receive Member testimony on proposed changes in House Rules
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to address the committee this morning. I would like to discuss the current, arbitrary limitation of six years for members to serve as chairman of committees and subcommittees.
I would like to be very clear about my position on this limitation. I think it is a bad idea. We should not have done it six years ago, and we should rescind it today.
Let me explain why I think this rule is a bad idea.
Mr. Chairman, as you well know, the world today is becoming more complex with each passing year. As our American values of democracy and free markets spread around the globe, our national interests expand with them.
Ten years ago, events in Western Sahara, the stability of Sierra Leone, the budget for United Nations peacekeeping and human rights in Burma were not major considerations of American foreign policy. Yet our International Relations Committee is examining each one of those issues -- and many more -- during this week alone.
This year, our committee has moved legislation on the worldwide spread of AIDS, proliferation to Iran and proliferation by North Korea, international adoption standards and many other issues of great complexity.
The world today is full of risks and opportunities for our nation. We have worked with the administration -- sometimes in not so friendly a manner -- to adapt our foreign policy agencies to address this new, complex world.
Six years ago, our committee led the way by proposing the streamlining our foreign policy agencies. We had the goal of both saving money and putting more control in the hands of the President and the Secretary of State. We achieved about ninety percent of our goals. Where previously there were four foreign policy agencies, there are now only two, with great budget savings as a result.
I don't need to review the issues we have addressed in the past six years, the laws we have made, the policies we have impacted. There have been hundreds of challenges to American foreign policy since late 1994. Our committee, the House International Relations Committee, has faced them all, promoting American interests and the principles of democracy and free markets that we all hold sacred.
Mr. Chairman, the rule limiting a chairman's tenure to six years does not account for this wealth of experience and judgment. We have assembled a record of accomplishment on dozens of issues, working with scores of members. That should be valued and respected. The six-year rule should be scrapped.
One final note, Mr. Chairman. As Moses led his people out of bondage in Egypt, he wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Moses never made it to the promised land.
Our party was in the minority for forty years. Now that we have reached the promised land, Mr. Chairman, do we really want to get rid of the people who got us here?
