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Connolly Statement on House Republican Rules Package for the 115th Congress

Washington, January 3, 2017
Congressman Gerry Connolly released the following statement on the House Republican rules package for the 115th Congress:

"Today, I opposed the House Republican rules package for the 115th Congress. This proposal ushers in a new era of unified Republican government. One in which facts – when inconvenient – do not matter and ethics are subject to the interpretation of the Majority.

Freedom of speech – a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution – has been redefined and curtailed by this resolution to accommodate the Majority’s crackdown on dissent.

"Under a unified Republican government, witch hunts against federal employees and the agencies for which they work are empowered and encouraged. The President-elect has already engaged in a stunning overreach during his transition by demanding the names of federal employees and scientists who have worked on projects he dislikes.

"We know the Majority would like to gut the functionality of the federal government. The dangerous and indiscriminate cuts of Sequestration are evidence enough of that. However, this rules package provides them with the surgical tools necessary to reach into the inner workings of the federal government and cut away each part and employee that runs afoul of their ideological agenda.

"I cannot see how anyone who calls themselves a friend to federal employees could support this proposal."
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