Mr. Chairman, I am pleased that this appropriations bill increases funding for the United States Marshals Service to enhance judicial protection. We have all heard of the deadly shootings that have claimed the lives of a judge, a judge's family members, a court reporter, a sheriff's deputy, and others inside and outside courthouses and even at private residences. This increase in funding is a good step, but I hope this Congress will continue to address this important issue so that we can ensure the safety in our courtrooms and the safety of our distinguished jurists.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to the physical attacks we have witnessed, the judiciary has also been the subject of many verbal assaults as well. The independence of the judiciary, a matter so fundamental to our separation of powers, has recently come under attack and has even become a matter of contention for some, even those at the highest levels of leadership in Congress who have made no effort to disguise a growing hostility towards the courts.
In bill after bill, many of our colleagues have been calling to strip the courts of jurisdiction over issues where they believe the courts have erred, or might err, and arguing we have no need of them. The proposed sanction for judges who tread on this prohibited ground, and a word spoken in the Halls of Congress with less and less restraint: impeachment.
Perhaps the single greatest example of the magnitude of the challenge to the independence of the courts, though, came with the Congress's extraordinary intervention in the case of Terry Schiavo. This heartrending private tragedy became the focus of efforts to overturn the Florida courts' interpretation of Florida law. When the Federal courts rejected this private bill and its effort to provide jurisdiction to courts that could not properly exercise it, the reaction among many in Congress was one of wrath. The same congressional leaders who had spent the last several months trying to strip the Federal courts of jurisdiction were now trying to extend it where it did not belong. Some have decided that the independence of the judiciary is an inconvenient impediment to a results-at-all-costs philosophy.
As a Member of Congress with a strong interest in improving the relationship between the legislative and judicial branches, I have formed, with the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), a bipartisan congressional caucus dedicated to improving comity between the branches of government. Our Congressional Caucus on the Judicial Branch currently consists of some 35 Members from both sides of the aisle, and I encourage my colleagues who share our goal to join our efforts to restore the historical comity between our two branches.
For the last 2 years, Chief Justice Rehnquist has cited the deterioration in relations between the Congress and the Federal judiciary, using his year-end reports to urge a restoration of comity between the branches. He has quoted Chief Justice Hughes' admonition to the Congress of his day that ``in the great enterprise of making American democracy workable for all partners, one member of our body politic cannot say to another 'I have no need of thee.'''
So today I offer on the House floor a simple sense of Congress amendment to demonstrate to our colleagues in the judicial branch and to the American people that we are committed to working together with the other branches and to upholding the fundamental separation of powers that the Founders envisioned, even if we do not always agree with each other.
It reads: ``It is the sense of Congress that all necessary steps should be taken to provide adequate security for the judiciary and to protect and uphold the independence of the judicial branch.''
Mr. Chairman, efforts by Congress to force the courts to look at our transient wishes, rather than the Constitution, will damage the courts and undermine our own integrity. In the end, we cannot expect to belittle the courts without belittling ourselves. I urge support for this amendment.
I know the chairman has a point of order on this. I would like to, on a separate topic, just thank the chairman; and I would also like to thank not only the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Wolf) but the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan), ranking member, for their work on the NASA budget in particular as it impacted JPL. I really appreciate the chairman's diligence. He was very kind to meet and discuss this with me several times, to reach out to me after our discussions. I want to thank the chairman again for all his diligence on that issue.