Sportsmanship on the Home Field and House Floor

High school football season has begun which means communities across Texas are coming together on Friday nights to cheer their home team on to a win.  While the teams may not agree with each call that is made they do have to agree to play by the rules of the game.

Otherwise instead of competition on the field we would see chaos.  Imagine if the visiting team scored during the final seconds of the fourth quarter inching them ahead toward victory when all of a sudden the home team ignored the scoreboard because they didn’t like what they saw. 

Then as if that wasn’t enough the home team went on to declare themselves the victor and attempted to extend the time of the game in an effort to score against the visiting team.  It would be an outrage!

As improbable as this situation may sound it’s very similar to what we witnessed occurring on the floor of the House of Representatives last month.  While determining whether or not a bill wins or loses is a different sort of competition than football like the sport it is guided by a set of rules.  If those rules aren’t respected the House can’t function properly.

On August 2 my Republican colleague Jerry Lewis of California offered a motion to the agriculture spending bill that sought to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving certain taxpayer-funded benefits.  While the Democrats are currently in the majority which gives them a sort of “home field advantage” on the House floor the vote on this Republican- sponsored provision was winning. 

When the clock on the vote ran out and it was time to announce the final vote tally the scoreboard declared that the Republican measure had won by a vote of 215-213.  Next thing we knew in spite of what the board said the Democrats declared the vote had failed by a vote of 214-214.  They then went on to “re-open” the vote something that just is not done in hopes that members would change their votes to “no.”  What’s worse all electronic records of the vote have mysteriously disappeared.

In all my years in the House I’ve never seen anything like we saw that night.  Not once have I ever watched as a vote is gaveled closed then reopened.  The strength of a democracy is how you treat the minority and the minority’s strength is in using the rules.  We obeyed the rules and won the vote and that vote needs to be counted.

The House has created an investigative committee to get to the bottom of last month’s stolen immigration vote.  This committee which will be composed of three Republicans and three Democrats will investigate the circumstances surrounding the vote and report its findings to the House on September 30 2007 and September 15 2008. 

This report will address the actions of Members of Congress as well as staff who contributed to the stolen vote.  It will also recommend changes that will help protect the votes cast by Members of Congress on behalf of the American people.  In the meantime I’ve co-sponsored a bill that seeks to ensure illegal immigrants don’t receive the taxpayer-funded benefits we attempted to protect in the vote that was stolen.

The House of Representatives has been a model of fairness and adherence to the rules. Yet what we saw that day was a free-for-all in which the Democrat leadership only respected the rules when things went the way they wanted them to.  While most of my colleagues display integrity in their work each day it’s time that those responsible for the stolen vote learn a thing or two about good old-fashioned sportsmanship.