The house selects Newt Gingrich as speaker of the house. [applause] [applause] ladies and gentlemen of the house, i first want to thank my democratic colleagues for their support and confidence. I noted that we were a little short. I appreciate your friendship and support. As you might imagine, this is not a moment that i had been waiting for. [laughter] when you carry the mantle of progress, there is precious little glory and defeat. Sometimes we spend so much time labeling the losers, we lose sight of the victory that we all share in this crown jewel of democracy. You see, mr. Speaker, this is a day to celebrate a power that belongs not to any political party, but the people. No matter the margin, no matter the majority. All across the world, from bosnia to chechnya, to south africa, people lay down their lives for the kind of voice that we take for granted. Too often the transfer of power is an act of pain and carnage. Not one of peace and decency. Here in the house of representatives,for 219 years, longer than any democracy in the world, we heed the peoples voice with peace and stability, and respect. Each and every day, on this very floor, we echo the hopes and dreams of our people. Their fears and their failures. There are abiding belief in a better america. We may not all agree with todays changing of the guards. We may not all like it. But we enact the peoples will with dignity and honor, and pride. In that endeavor, mr. Speaker, there can be no losers. There can be no defeat. Of course, in the 104th congress, there will be conflict and compromise. Agreements will not always be easy. Agreement sometimes not even possible. But while we may not agree on manner as a party in principle, we all abide to the will of the people. That is reason enough to place our good faith, and our best hopes, in your able hands. I speak for the bottom of my heart when i say that i wish you the best in these coming two years. For when this gavel passes into your hands, so does the futures and fortunes of millions of americans. To make real progress, to improve real peoples lives, we both have to rise above partisanship. We have to Work Together where we can, and where we must. It is a profound responsibility. One which knows no bounds a party or politics. It is the responsibility not merely for those who voted for you. Not merely for those who cast their fate on your side of the aisle. But also for those who did not. These are the responsibilities that i passed, along with the gavel. There are some burdens of the Democratic Party will never ceased to bear. The democrats wwe came to congress to fight for americas hard working middle class families families were often working for longer hours, with fewer benefits in jobs that they are not sure they can keep. We together must redeem their faith that if they work hard and play by the rules, they can know the better life for their children. Mr. Speaker, i want this entire house to speak for those families. The Democratic Party will. That we will never lay to rest. [applause] so, what partnership, but with purpose, i passed this great gavel of our government. With resignation, but with resolve. I hereby and 40 years of democratic rule of this house. [applause] with faith and friendship, and the deepest respect, you are now my speaker. Let the great debate begin. I now have a high honor and distinct privilege to present to the house of representatives, our new speaker, from georgia, Newt Gingrich. [applause] let me say, first of all im very deeply grateful to my good friend. I cannot help my side maybe overreacted to your statement ending 40 years of democratic rule. I cannot help but look over to bob michael, who has often been up here, and knows that everything dick said is true. This is difficult and painful to lose. On my side of the aisle, we have been on the losing side of the aisle for 20 years. Yet, theres something so wonderful that by a process of the free people this is decided. In my own case, ive lost two elections. I almost lost to others. I can tell you, every time the polls close, i felt good. Win or lose, we have been a part of this process. In a little while, i want to ask the dean of the house to swear me in. To insist in the bipartisan nature in which we, together, work in this house. Johns father was one of the great stalwarts of the new deal. I think that john and his father represent a tradition that we all have to recognize and respect. Recognize that the america that we have to now lead grew from that tradition. I also want to take just a moment to thank speaker foley, who was extraordinarily generous. I think that he worked very hard to reestablish the dignity of the house. I think that we can all be proud of the reputation that he takes, and the spirit with which he led the speakership. Our best wishes to mr. And mrs. Foley. [applause] i also want to think the various house officers who have been extraordinary. For the Public Record faced with a resolve that none of them wanted, and a situation that i expect none of them expected, within 48 hours, every officer of this house worked overtime, bent over backwards, and helped us. Im very grateful to every officer. Thank you. [applause] this is a historic moment. I was asked over and over again, how does this feel . Iit is overwhelming. I am overwhelmed by all the georgians they came up, by my extended family, by the historic moment when i came out and stood on the balcony this morning. I was overwhelmed by the view. Just the sense of being part of america, and part of this great tradition. I have two gavels, actually. This is a georgia gavel that i just got this morning. Someone from georgia decided that the gavels he saw on tv were not big enough. He cut down a tree and made this gavel this is genuine georgia gavel. I am the first georgia speaker in over 100 years. This is the gavel that speaker martin used. Im not sure if it says something about inflation of government if you put them side by side. This is the last gamble used by the last republican speaker. When i write as a freshman in the republican party, deeply dispirited by watergate. We banded together and worked with a leader who helped to pave the way. A man who did a marvelous job. I cannot speak to highly of what i learned from serving with him. He is here with us again today. I hope you all recognize congressman john rhodes of arizona. [applause] let me say at our request, he thought he would hide in the back, and i insist that he come down front. I think virtually everyone in the house will say that he is a man who genuinely cares about the house. Amanda i hope a speaker i can always rely on for advice. I hope all of you join me in thanking him for his years of service. Congressman bob michaels. [applause] im very fortunate today. My mom and dad are here. Im so delighted that they are both able to be here. Sometimes when you get to my age, you cannot have everyone near you who you would like to. I cannot say how much i learned from my dad in his years of serving in the army, and how much ive learned from my mother, my most enthusiastic cheerleader. My daughters are here. And, the person who is clearly my closest friend, and best advisor, my wife, marianne. [applause] i have a very large extended family. There virtually all in town. When i first came on the floor earlier, i went around and saw a number of the children on the floor, and the young adults who are close to 12 years of age i cannot help but think sitting back close to the back rail of the house are one some of my nephews. They are all back there my nieces and nephews. I cannot help but think of the way that i wanted to start this speakership. This sense of the young people that you see around you, theyre really what this is all about. Much more than the negative advertising and interest groups. All the things that all too often make politics nasty. What makes politics worthwhile is the choice between what we see so tragically on the evening news, and the way that we try to do it, is to work very hard to make this system as free to work. The reason for doing that is thatthis is the country that these children will inherit. For 208 years, we have gathered together the most diverse country in the history of the world. Each of us could find at least one member who we thought was weird. If you want around the room, the pearson the person that we choose as weird would be different for each of us. Brian lamb at the stand that to me on friday a phrase henry clay always preferred the house to the senate, although he served in both. He said the house is more vital, more dynamic. This is what was written often there is no distinct man in the room, its members are all obscure. Theyre mostly village lawyers, or even persons belonging to lower class of society. If you put women in with men, i do not know that we have change much. The word holder had a very particular meeting a meeting that the world would do well to society. He was an aristocrat, he lived in a world of kings and princes. The folks who come here come here by the one single act that their citizens freely chosen. I do not care what your ethnic background, your ideology, whether you are younger or older, whether you were born in america or you are naturalized citizen, every one of the 435 people have equal standing because they are citizens. Their voice should be heard and they have a right to participate. It is the most marvelous act of a complex giant country trying to argue and talk. And conservatives, but americans all. Steve gunderson today gave me a copy of the portable Abraham Lincoln and suggested there is much for me to learn about our party but i would also say as i have all since the election, it doesnt hurt to have a copy of the portable f. D. R. This is a great country a great people. If there is any one fact or act of my life that strikes me as i stand up here as the first republican in 40 years to do so when i first became whip, in 1989 russia was beginning to change. The soviet union as it was then and into my whips office came eight russians and a lithuanian. Members of the communist party, newspaper editors, and they asked me what does a whip do . They said, you know, in russia we have never had a Free Parliament since 1917 and that was only for a few months so what do you do . And i tried to explain as dave bonior or tom delay might now and its a little strange if youre from a dictatorship to explain you are called the whip, you dont really have a whip, you are elected by the people you are pressuring. You have to somehow find democracy is hard. Its frustrating. And so we came in the chamber and the lithuanian was a man in his late 6os and i allowed him to come up here and sit and be speaker and its something many of us have done with [closed captions brought to you by circuit city intel. ] s. Remember, this is the very beginning, he was almost in tear c and i said, ever since world war ii i remember what the americans did and i have never believed the propaganda. He said i have to tell you, i did not think in my life that i would be able to sit at the center of freedom. It was one of the most overwhelming, most compelling moments of my life. Its something i couldnt help think of when we were here with president mandela and i went and saw ron dellums and thought of his great work with freedom and that sense of emotion when you see something so totally different than you expected. Here is a man that reminded me that while president s are important, they are in fact an elected kingship. That this and the other bod a cross the way are where freedom has to be fought out and thats the tradition i hope that we will take with us as we go to work. Today we had a bipartisan prayer service. Frank wolf made some very important points. He said we have to recognize that many of our most painful problems as a country are moral problems, problems of dealing with ourselves and with life. He said chairkl ter is the key to leadership and we have to character is the key to leadership and we have to deal with it. He preached about a spirit of reconciliation and he talked about caring about our spouses and our children and our families because if we are not prepared to model that, beyond just having them here for one day, if we are not prepared to care about our children and we are not prepared to care about our families then by what arrogance do we think we will transcend our behavior to care about others and thats why with congressman gephardts help we have established a Bipartisan Task force in the family, we have established a principle that we are going to set schedules we stick to so families can count on times to be together, build around the School Schedules so that families can get to know each other and not just on cspan. I will also say that means one of the strongest recommendations of the bipartisan Family Committee i dont want this to be seen as gingrich acting as a speaker on his own here is that we have 17 minutes to vote. They pointed out that if you take the time we spent in the last congress where we had one more and then one more. At one. We had a 45minute vote that you literally can shorten the business and get people home if we can be strict and firm. I say that with all of my colleagues i hope paying attention because we in fact are going to work very hard to have 17 minutes and its over. So leave at the first bell, not the second bell, ok . This may appropriate to say on the first day because this will be the busiest day on opening day in congressional history. I want to read justpp c the contract with america, as a partisan act but to remind all of us what we are about to go through and why because those of us who ended up in the majority stood on these steps and signed a contract, and here is part of what it says. On the first day of the 104th congress the new republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American People and their government. First, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the congress. Second, select a major independent Auditing Firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of congress for waste fraud or abuse. Third, cut the number of committees and House Committee staffs by a third. Fourth limit the terms of all committee chairs. Fifth, ban the casting of proxy votes in committees. Sixth require Committee Meetings to be open to the public. Seventh, require a 3 5 majority vote to pass a tax increase. Eighth guarantee an honest accounting of our budget by a zero base line budgeting. I told dick if i had to do it over again we would have pledged within three days we would do these things. We have ourselves in a little bit of a box. I carry the tv guide version of the contract with me at all times. We then said within the first 100 days of the 104th we shall bring to the house floor the following bills, each to be given fill and open debate clear and fair vote, and each to be immediately available for inspection. We made it available that day. We listed 10 items. A balanced Budget Amendment and lineitem veto, to stop violent criminals, emphasizing among other things and effective and enforceible death penalty. Third was welfare reform. Fourth was protecting our kids. Tax cuts for families. A stronger national defense. Raising the Senior Citizens earning limit. Rolling back government regulations. Ninth was common sense legal reformpd tenth was congressional term limits. Our commitment on our side and i think we have this absolute obligation is first of all to work today until we are done. That i know will inconvenience people. They have families and supporters but we were hired to do a job and we have to start today to prove well do it. Second i would say to my friends in the Democratic Party that were going to work with you and were really laying out a schedule working with the minority leader, to make sure that we can set dates certain to go home. That does mean two or three weeks out if we are running short, we will frankly have longer sessions on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. We will try to work this out on a bipartisan basis to in a work manlike way get it done. It will mean the busiest early months since 1933. Beyond the contract, i think there are two giant challenges. I really i know i am a very partisan figure, but i really hope today that i can speak for a minute to my friends in the Democratic Party as well as my own colleagues, speak to the country, about these two challenges. I hope we can have a real dialogue. One is to achieve a balanced budget by 2002. Now, i think both democratic and republican governors will tell you its doable but its hard. I dont think its doable in a year or two. I dont think we ought to lie to the American People. This is a huge, complicated job. Second, i think we have to find a way to truly replace the current welfare state with an opportunity society. Let me talk very briefly about both. First on the balanced budget. I think we can get it done. I think the baby boomers are now old enough that we can have an honest dialogue about priorities, about resources about what works, what5ql 9 c let me say ive already told Vice President gore we were going to invite him. We would have invited him in december, but he had to go to moscow. We are going to invite him up to address the republican conference on reinventing government. I believe there are grounds for us to talk together, to have hearings together, to have task forces together. I think if we set priorities, if we apply the principles of Peter Drucker and edward deming, if we focus on transforming not just cutting, not just do you want more or do you want less, but are there ways to do it better, can we learn from the private sector, can we learn from ford, from ibm, from microsoft, from what General Motors has had to go through . I think on a bipartisan basis we owe it to our children and grandchildren to get this government in order and to be able to actually pay our way. I think 2002 is a reasonable time frame. And i would hope that together we could open a dialogue with the American People. Ive said i think Social Security ought to be off limits at least for the first four to six years of this process, because i think it will just destroy us if we try to bring it into the game. But let me say about Everything Else whether its medicare or its agricultural subsidies or defense or anything that i think the greatest democratic president of the 20th century in my judgment, the greatest president of the 20th century said it right on march 4 1933 when he stood in the braces as a man who had polio at a time when nobody who had that kind of disability could be anything in public life, and he was president of the United States, and he stood in front of this capitol on a rainy march day and he said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. I believe if every one of us will reach out in that spirit and will pledge and i think frankly on a bipartisan basis. I would say to the members of the black and spanning caucus i would hope we could hispanic caucus i would hope we could arrange by late spring to genuinely share districts agree to come for a long weekend with you and you go for a long weekend with them and we begin a dialogue and an openness that is totally different than people are used to seeing in politics in america. I believe if we do that, we can create a dialogue that can lead to a balanced budget. But i think we have a greater challenge. And i do want to pick up directly on what Dick Gephardt said, because he said it right. And no republican here should kid themselves about it. The greatest leaders in fighting for an integrated america in the 20th century were in the Democratic Party. The fact is it was the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that ended segregation. The fact is that it was Franklin Delano roosevelt who gave hope to a nation that was in despair and could have slid into a dictatorship. The fact is every republican has much to learn from studying what the democrats did right. I would say to my friends in the Democratic Party that there was much to what Ronald Reagan was trying to get done. There is much to what is being done today by republicans like bill well and john engler and Christie Whitman and pete wilson. There is much we can share with each other. We plus replace the welfare state with a new virn. The balanced budget is the right thing to do, but it doesnt have the moral urgency of coming to grips whats happening with poor americans. I commend to all of you the tragedy of american compassion. The author deps back 300 years and looks at what has worked in america, how we have reached out to save people. He may not have the answers, but he has the right sense of where we have to go as americans. I dont believe that there is a single american who can see a news report of a 4yearold thrown of a Public Housing project in chicago by other children and killed andart of your heart went. I think of my nephew in the back kevin. How would any of us feel about ourq ei how can any american read about an 11yearold buried with his teddy bear because he killed a 14yearold and then another 14yearold killed him and not have some sense of my god where has this country gone . How can we not decide that this is a moral crisis equal to segregation equal to slavery . And how can we not insist that every day we take steps to do something. I have seldom been more shaken than i was shortly after the election when i had breakfast with the africanamerican caucus and he said to me can you imagine what visit a fifth grade class and realizep one of those boys in that class may be dead or in jail in 15 years and they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it. Maybe thats the reason that got through. That personized it. That made it real. Not just statistics, but real people. And then i tried to explain part of my thoughts by talking about the need for alternatives to the bureaucracy and we got into what i think has been a pretty cheap and distorted debate about orphanages. Jd q ei my father who is here today was a foster child. I am adopted. We have relatives who are adopted. We are not talking about some vague dickens bleakhouse intellectual model. We have lived the alternatives. I believe when we are told that children are so lost in the city bureaucracies that there are children in dumpsters when we are told that there are children doomed to go to school where 70 or 80 of them will not graduate when we are told of Public Housing projects that are so dangerous that if any private sector ran them they would be put in jail and we are given, we will study it, we will get around to it. My only point is we can find ways immediately to do things better and to reach out and to break through the bureaucracy and to give every Young American child a better chance. And let me suggest to you let me suggest to you a new book i dont agree with all of it entitled, working without a net which argues in the 21st century we have to create our own safety nets, but he draws a distinction between caring and care taking. He says caretaking is when you bother me enough that if i feel better i think you have been taken care of. You may just be an alcoholic but i give you the money to buy the bottle that kills you. He said caring is actually stopping and dealing with the human being and trying to understand enough about him to genuinely care and improve your life. You have to start out with a conversation like if you quit drinking ill help you get a job which is a lot better than saying i gave him 5. I would say to those republicans who believe in total privatization you cant believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow american who is hurt and not do something. I would say to my friend that there has never been a Government Program who isnt worth keeping. You cant not want to reach out to the humans and forget the bureaucracies. We would be an amazingly different place if we could build those attitudes on both sides of the aisle. We have to create a partnership. We have to reach out to the American People. We are going to do a lot of important things. As of going to thanks to the house Information System and congressman vern ehlers we are going to be on line with the whole country, congressman gephardt has agreed to help on a bipartisan basis to make the building more open to television, more ack sell i believe to the American People. We have talk radio hosts here for the first time and i hope to make the place access i believe for all talk radio. The house Historians Office is going to be much more aggressively run to reach out on a bipartisan basis, to teach us what the legislative struggle is about. I think we will this spring rethink Campaign Reform and lobbying reform and review all ethics, including the gift rule and what we think our role should be but that aint enough. Our shouldnt be to balance the budget, to pass the contract our challenge shouldnt be anything thats just legislative. We are supposed to each one of us be leaders. I think our challenge has to be to set as our goal and we are not going to get here in two years, but this ought to be the goal that we go home and we tell people we believe in, that there will be a monday morning when for the entire weekend not a single child was killed anywhere in america. That there be a monday morning when every child in the country went to a school that they and their parents thought prepared them as citizens and prepared them to compete in the world market. That there be a monday morning when it would be easy to find a job and create a job and your own government didnt punish you if you tried. We shouldnt be happy just with the language of politicians and the language of legislation. We should insist that our success for america is felt in the neighborhoods, in the communities, is felt by real People Living real lives who can say yes, we are safer, we are healthier, we are better educated america succeeds. This mornings closing hymn at th service was the battle hymn of the republic. Its hard to be in this building and look down past grant to the lin lln memorial and not realize how painful and how difficult that battle hymn is. The key phrase is as he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free. Its not just political freedom, although i agree with everything congressman gephardt said earlier if you cant afford to leave the Public Housing project, you are not free. If you dont know how to find a job and how to create a job you are not free. If you cant find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If youre afraid to walk to the store because you can get killed, you are not free. Tu all of us over the coming months sing that song as he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, i want us to dedicate ourselves to reach out in a genuinely nonpartisan way, to be honest with each other, i promise each of you that without regard to party, my door is going to be open. I will listen to each of you i will try to work with each of you, i will put in long hours and ill guarantee that ill listen to you first and ill let you get it all out before you give me my version because you have been patient with me today and you gave me a chance to set the stage. But i want to close by reminding all of us of how much bigger this is than us. Because beyond talking with the American People, beyond working together i think we can only be successful if wep lim very struck this morning with something bill emerson used Fairly Famous quote of benjamin franklin. As the point where the Constitutional Convention was deadlocked and people were tired, there was a real possibility that the convention was going to break up and franklin who was quite old and had been relatively quiet for the entire convention suddenly stood up and was angry and he said i have lived, sir, a long time and the longer i live, the more convincing proofs i see of this truth, that good governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid . And at that point the Constitutional Convention stopped. They took a day off for fasting and prayer and then having stopped and come together they went back and they solved the great question of a large and small state and they wrote the constitution and the United States was created. If each of us, and all i can do is pledge you for me, if each of us will reach out prayerfully and try to ge you inly understand the other if we will recognize in this building we symbolize america that we have an obligation to talk to each other then i think a year from now we can look on the 1 4th congress as a truly amazing institution and without regard to Party Without regard to ideology, we can say here america comes to work and here we are preparing for those children a better future. Thank you. Good luck and god bless you. Let me now call on mr. Dingell. The speaker i am now ready to take the oath of office and i ask the dean of the house of representatives the honorable john dingell of michigan to administer the oath of office. Will the gentleman from georgia please raise his right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter so help you god . The speaker i do. Mr. Dingell congratulations