Keep it from being too strong, but keep it from being weakened on the floor, and because they conducted debate in whats known as the committee of the whole, votes were not recorded by and large, and the only way to know how someone voted was to be there physically and watch, and except for reporters, no one could take notes on paper in the house gallery so the forces led by Clarence Mitchell and others devised a system of gallery watchers, the segregationists called them vultures, but they had to sit there and keep notes in their head who was voting how, what amendment, and in the precell phone era, had to round up family members to make sure enough were on the floor at any one time to defeat hostile legislative mischief, so a bunch of young activists led by a Woman Working for the textiles who is still alive fighting all the fights, would sit in a telephone tree and they heard something was happening on the floor, they would physically go run office to office, going come on, and after
Awarding the congressional gold medal to dr. Martin luther king, jr. And his wife core letta scott king. This is a little less than an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our honored guest, members of the United States house of representatives, members of the United States senate and the speaker of the United States house of representatives. Ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the United States house of representatives the honorable john boehner. Good afternoon and welcome to the United States capitol. [ applause ] as you can see the dome is under construction. Getting some repairs and theres a technical term for that canopy but the architect said we could refor it refer to it as the doughnut. On july 2nd, 1964 congress completed the most fundamental and consequential ladies and gentlemen legislation of our long history. The Civil Rights Act recognizes every citizen has the right to pursue happiness without discrimination on grounds of race, color, or national origin. This was
Of our republican forbids it. The principles of our freedom forbid it. Morality forbids it. The law i will sign tonight forbids it. That law is the product of months of the most careful debate and discussion. It was proposed more than one year ago by our late and beloved president , john f. Kennedy. It received the bipartisan support of more than 2 3 of the members and the house and senate. An overwhelming majority of republicans as well as democrats voted for it. It has received the thoughtful support of 10s of thousands of civic and religious leaders in all parts of this nation and it is supported by the great majority of the american people. The purpose of this law is simple. It does not restrict the freedom of any american so long as he restricts the rights of others. It does not give special treatment to any citizen. It does say the only limit to a mans hope for happiness and for the future of his children shall be his own ability. It does say that there are those who are equal be
Armies whose idea time has come. It was. The chamber was absolutely jammed. The gallery filled, standing room only, no staff allowed on the floor. Just 100 senators. As the vote proceeded, it was silent like a tomb, and when John Williams of delaware cast the deciding vote, everyone, there was a corporate exhaling of breath. It was so tense that everybody literally held their breath until that last vote was counted, and in a blink, Richard Russell was on his feet demanding to know what the hell wed do next. Just to think about it, you know how hard it is to get 60 for todays senate, this was 67, which was a much higher bar, and there was clearly a block of people who were against it, and it was one by one, president Lyndon Johnson got a few, and one i remember writing about was jack miller, the other senator from iowa, i think it was dubuque, and there was an archbishop who called him saying if you dont vote for cloture, well excommunicate you. I mean this was really today, Martin Luth
Overseas, many of them stand ready and willing for their next mission. As many of my colleagues have pointed out today, the National Guard can play a pivotal role in securing americas borders. Weve seen successful guard missions in the past with operations jump start, phoenix, and nimbus. Last year i called on the department to use the National Guard to help secure the border. In may 2013, i offered an amendment in this committee to the Border Security results act, which would ensure that dhs considers Lessons Learned from past National Guard missions on the border. Both the current and previous administrations have used the National Guard on more of a shortterm ad hoc basis rather than on any longterm, strategic plan. Secretary johnson, wouldnt it be beneficial for the department to partner with the National Guard and develop a longterm strategy for the guard to assist along the borders . And wouldnt it be the borders would be more secure if we had a wellplanned, budgeted strategy tha