Dear Rodamala:Thank you for contacting me and taking the time to express your opposition to Rep. John Boehner for Speaker of the House of Representatives. Your opinion is important to me and I appreciate the opportunity to respond with my thoughts on the matter.
Prior to commencement of the 114th Congress, just days after the November mid-term elections, Republican members of the House of Representatives met to nominate our leadership team. During this conference, not a single member of the House Republican Conference voiced opposition to the nomination of Rep. John Boehner to serve another term as Speaker. Similarly, there was not a dissenting vote during the secret ballot process. The nomination process for Speaker Boehner was unanimous.
On January 6, 2015, the House elected Rep. John Boehner as Speaker over Rep. Nancy Pelosi by a vote of 216 to 164, despite dissenting votes from 25 members of the Republican party. While I hold the Republican candidates who challenged Speaker Boehner in high regards as friends and colleagues, the fact is that none were suitable or prepared to hold the position. I do not believe these challenges were sincere efforts, with the alternative candidates announcing their intentions mere days before to Television audiences. One of the most important components of success is appropriate planning. As a result, I could not in good-faith cast my vote on behalf of any member who did not have the foresight to speak to their colleagues about his or her decision to run for Speaker. As a result, Rep. Louie Gohmert received just three votes in total, one being his very own.
Many of the challenges in the legislative process over the past several years were not caused by House Leadership, but can directly be attributed to lack of action from a Democrat majority in the Senate. I can attest that as a life-long conservative, I have worked as your representative to advance conservative principles in order to better serve the people of the Commonwealth and our great nation. The Constitution established a system of checks and balances that were very intentional. To appropriately navigate this process and to advance our shared conservative ideals, we as Republicans must stick together and not let a few members concerned with self-promotion divide our ranks.
I have always been a firm believer that trust is earned. While I am not asking you to take my word for it, I am respectfully requesting that you look at some of the accomplishments in the first 13 legislative days of the new Congress, including: House approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline; Passage of the Hire More Heroes Act to employ more veterans without Obamacare burdens; Restoring the 40-hour workweek and protecting the paychecks of millions of hard-working Americans; Prohibiting taxpayer funding for abortions; Protecting Volunteer Fire Departments from Obamacare mandates; Expediting the licensing of Liquefied Natural Gas exports to create jobs and national security; Streamlining the construction of natural gas pipelines so we can continue to utilize American-produced energy and lower energy costs for families; Blocking the President's unlawful amnesty program; Regulatory reforms that allow more public input; and twelve separate bills to combat human trafficking that will protect the most vulnerable, especially children.
Please be assured that while I believe many of these legislative initiatives to be a good start, there remains much work to be done. As your elected member of the House of Representatives, this is a task that I do not take lightly and I will remain committed to further earning your trust over the remainder of the 114th Congress.
I would like to once again thank you for contacting me with your concerns. For more information on my policies and happenings around the 5th District, please visit my website at www.thompson.house.gov. There you can sign up to receive periodic updates via my e-newsletter, The Thompson Times.
Sincerely,
Glenn Thompson
Member of Congress
I wonder if Williamson Co (TX) could do the same.