Mr. McCaul of Texas- Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

   I too am a member of the Homeland Security Committee. I was also a Federal prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section in Washington, and I also serve on the Ethics Committee. I would respectfully submit that we are not muddling up the process but rather trying to restore ethics and integrity to the process and to this institution.

   In my view, this is Congress at its worst. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have created a secret slush fund with billions in secret earmarks hidden from public scrutiny. This comes on the heels of many broken promises that we heard, promises such as from Speaker Pelosi: "We will bring transparency and openness to the budget process and to the use of earmarks."

   The majority leader, Steny Hoyer, said: "We are going to adopt rules that make the system of legislation transparent so that we don't legislate in the dark of the night."

   Yet that is exactly what is occurring in this body. CNN, not exactly a conservative think tank, actually said that the Democrats promised reform and it is not happening: "The `anti-earmark reforms' are just for show. Mere window dressing." This process signals a retreat in the secret dealings and a guarantee of fiscal and ethical abuse. Earmarks should always be open to public vetting, full debate, and floor challenge, as we attempted to do in the last Congress.

   Now, Mr. Obey and the Majority are stuck between the pork and those campaign promises that they made. And so those promises are given away. The majority wants this Congress to operate behind closed doors in dark corridors where the precept of Justice Brandeis that "sunlight is the best disinfectant" is hardly known. The powerful impact of public debate and a free press are critical features of an American democracy and they are missing, Mr. Chairman. They are missing here today in this Congress.

   Secrecy creates a breeding ground for corruption. Openness is an important part of ensuring that government officials are acting in the best interest of the public and that the citizens are not being manipulated by special interest groups.

   Here we have one man, one man and an unelected staff, determining the power of the purse for the United States Congress, acting on behalf of 435 Members elected by the United States. Yet we have one man to make all the decisions about the spending for the United States Government. This is not, I submit, a democracy. This is a monarchy.

   And to quote James Cooper: "A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.

   "A nation is truly corrupt, when, after having, by degrees lost its character and liberty, it slides from democracy into aristocracy for monarchy; this is the death of the political body ....."

   Someone said: "The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of democracy should be the weapon of openness." That is what we are trying to achieve here today.

   I will close with a quote from Lord Byron, and I think he sums up this debate better than any quote I have heard when he said: "The Cardinal is at his wit's end; it is true that he had not far to go."