FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            
Contact:  Mike Rosen

December 2, 2010                                                                               

House floor remarks of Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Rangel Adjudicatory Subcommittee, delivered during today’s censure vote:

Congressman Michael T. McCaul (R-TX)

Ranking Member, Adjudicatory Subcommittee

Committee on Standards of Official Conduct

 House Floor Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

December 2, 2010

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Let me thank the gentleman from Alabama for his leadership on this difficult matter.

This is an important day, for Mr. Rangel, for the Congress, but most importantly for the American People.  As the Ranking Member during the Rangel adjudicatory proceedings and as a former federal prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice I take this responsibility very seriously.

Let me be clear, no member asked for this assignment.  But we accept our responsibility for no other reason than to protect the honor, integrity, and credibility of this great institution.

The American people’s confidence in us is at historic lows.  They want their elected representatives held accountable for their actions just as they are held accountable as private citizens.   

Today we have an opportunity to begin a new era restoring the trust of the American people.  

The Committee agreed on 12 of the 13 counts—finding that he violated multiple rules of the House and federal statutes, including the most fundamental code of conduct, which states “a Member… of the House shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect credibility on the House.”  And credibility is exactly what is at stake here.  The very credibility of the House of Representatives itself before the American people.  

Most egregiously, the Committee found that Mr. Rangel failed to pay his income taxes for 17 years.  This, while serving as the Chairman of the Committee that writes the tax laws for the Nation.   What kind of message does that send to the average working man or woman who plays by the rules and struggles everyday to pay their own taxes?

Mr. Rangel also solicited contributions from corporations, foundations and lobbyists who had business before his committee to build a school bearing his name. 

I have consistently opposed Members of Congress naming Monuments after themselves. 

The Committee recommended the most severe punishment available based upon fact and precedent.  This sanction is both rare and historic. 

Founding Father John Adams said that “moral authority and character increases as the importance of the position increases.”  In his letter to the Speaker, Mr. Rangel stated that as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee he is to be held to a higher standard of propriety.  I agree. Mr. Rangel failed to hold himself to this higher standard.  And the American people deserve better.

And while I feel for Mr. Rangel as a human being, I feel more strongly that a public office is a public trust.   And Mr. Rangel violated that trust. 

The Speaker challenged us to enter into a new era of transparency and accountability.  Let us begin today.  Let justice be served.  Let us enter into a new era of ethics to restore the credibility and integrity of this House, the People’s House.