Press Release
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October 16, 2007 |
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Media Contact: Clark Pettig
phone (202) 225-5456
cell (202) 280-8159
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Shea-Porter Helps Launch Project to Defend Constitution
Freshmen Class’ Article 1 Initiative Will Reassert Congressional Authority |
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Washington, DC -- Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) today joined with six other members of the freshmen class for a press conference to announce the Article 1 Initiative – a new movement to reassert the role of the Congress as defined under Article 1 of the Constitution. Speaking outside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington this morning, the lawmakers declared their intent to restore the balance of power between Congress and the President.
“Congress has a responsibility to the American people to defend the separation of powers established by the Constitution,” said Congresswoman Shea-Porter. “John Adams once wrote that we are ‘a government of laws and not of men.’ The founding fathers established our system of checks and balances because they peered into the future, and they were worried about men like the President, who has systematically ignored the Constitution.”
Shea-Porter has long been an outspoken advocate for reining in the power of the White House and restoring Congressional authority. This summer, she introduced a bill to curtail the President’s ability to rewrite laws through the use of signing statements. The Presidential Signing Statements Act (HR 3045) is gaining momentum in the House and has picked up forty-one cosponsors, including a number of prominent Democrats. It is the companion to a bill introduced in the Senate in June by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“It’s the role of the Congress, not the President, to write the laws, and it’s time that Congress took that power back,” said Shea-Porter.
The Article 1 Initiative will be an ongoing project of the freshman class in the House of Representatives. Many of the lawmakers are already wearing “Article 1” lapel buttons to show their support for the initiative. In the weeks and months ahead, they will work together to push for an agenda that reasserts the independence of the Congress and restores the system of checks and balances.
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