Decorum and Maintaining Civility in the House

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALMER. Madam Speaker, I rise to respond to the assertion of the Majority Leader that the act of destroying the copy of President Trump's State of the Union address that the President--as required by the Constitution--presented to Speaker Pelosi was speech protected under the 1st Amendment. The Majority Leader should be reminded that not all speech that is protected under the 1st Amendment is allowable in the House chamber under the Rules of the House.

Moreover, the act of destroying the official House copy of President Trump's State of the Union address in of itself is a violation of what is and should be expected for the conduct of every member of the House. The premeditated and wanton disregard of the rules governing decorum that we all commit to abide by diminishes the civility and undermines the order that is essential to the functioning of the House as a deliberative body and that is expected of every member of the House of Representatives including and especially the Speaker of the House. I would add that if such conduct is ignored and not addressed by the leadership of both Parties our ability to govern will be seriously compromised.

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