every single article. we will vote on every single article in this house as we have always done, and it's important for us to do that so when we go to the senate they have the opportunity to review each single article of impeachment. this is extremely important, not just for judge kent, not just for his employees who have suffered unnecessarily but for the entire judicial system. for us to tyrarry a single day is injustice. while he sits incarcerated in a federal institution of confinement he's a judge. what arrogance. and if we do not act we are letting the word go out that we, the only branch of government that is enabled by the constitution to act in these circumstances do not take our constitutional obligations seriously. we cannot resist acting here, and we cannot resist asking the senate to act as expeditiously as possible. this federal judge has demeaned his office, has demeaned this country, has demeaned his oath of office and the constitution itself. and we need now to act, and we have sufficient evidence presented on this record for all members to vote in favor of each and every article of impeachment. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california's time has expired. the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time and has 12 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from michigan is recognized and has five minutes remaining. mr. conyers: mr. speaker, i am pleased to recognize now the gentleman from tennessee, a member of the task force and also the chair of the commercial and administrative law subcommittee, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan will suspend for just a moment. the gentleman from michigan has 4 1/2 minutes remaining. the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for two minutes. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. and i want to thank the chairman and the chairman of the task force and the ranking member of the committee and mr. sensenbrenner. this unquestionably has the facts that are obvious for this house to vote on to vote for impeachment. this judge has abused his office and justice by pleading guilty to obstruction of justice, committing obstruction of justice and lying to an official panel. and has taken an action upon his employees in his position, women that is an affront to all women in this country, and these are actions that are worthy of the vote of impeachment. that's unquestioned. but what is particularly impressive to me is the procedure that this house has acted in and the speed to make sure that the public treasury and the public trust are protected. this man does not deserve his pay. he does not deserve his position. he does not deserve his pension for he has shamed the country, the judiciary and been offensive toward people and good conduct, and for those reasons it's important that this house act, the senate have an opportunity to try this man and protect the public treasury and the public good. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from tennessee yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield four minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, a member of the impeachment task force and former district judge from texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for four minutes. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. and i also want to thank the leadership and the very responsible conduct of the chairman of the task force, adam schiff, doing an exemplary job and bringing it to head as quickly as humanly can be done. and to chairman conyers and to ranking member smith. we have worked together on this because it is a very serious matter when our federal courts are held in less than high esteem. we have a federal judge, as already been mentioned, pled guilty to obstruction of! he admitted to nonconsensual sexual acts. we have the transcript from the federal court hearings in which there are actual specificity of misrepresentations. we also could take judicial notice of his orders and opinions that he wrote himself. it's very clear that as some of the witnesses testified he was arrogant, he was a bully, but that's not enough to impeach someone or remove them from office. but it's certainly on construction -- but certainly obstruction of justice would be under the circumstances here. what i found particularly offensive beyond the obstruction was the games that were played by this judge with this body. here the day before we were having our hearing of the task we get a resignation letter dated june 2, 2009, addressed to the president saying i hereby resign from my position as united states district judge for the southern district of texas effective june 1, 2010. a year away. a res. ignition that could be with-- a resignation that could be withdrawn at anytime before it became effective. now, we heard testimony from the witnesses that this judge was particularly manipulative and that's how he was able to continue the nonconsensual sexual assaults over and over because he was so manipulative. they were afraid of losing their jobs, and it was clear that he had said i'm the king and it's good to be king. it's good to be king unless you're committing crimes and misusing the office to which you were entrusted. but the resignation letter would just be a resignation if it were sincere, but then we got another letter before our final hearing for the committee asking that it be taken into consideration that he had these problems and he needed his salary and his medical and he was trying to pay medical bills of his late wife. ironically he wasn't quite as concerned for his late wife when he was groping and manipulating and bullying people within his trusted care as a federal judge. we heard testimony that if someone had come before his court and use the same reasons that he gave as to why he ought to keep getting his salary that he would not only have not been moved to sympathy, he would have been moved to anger and would have taken it out on a defendant. so even at this late date there's no evidence of contriteness, there's no evidence of remorse other than being caught, there's more manipulation which makes clear all the more that he should not have his request granted, that he be paid as a federal judge while he's sitting in prison for committing crimes while he was getting paid to be a federal judge. let's bring this to an end and vote for the impeachment. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas' time has expired. the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. conyers: thank you, mr. speaker. we close our debate. we reserve at this time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, who is the deputy ranking member of the crime committee of the subcommittee and also a former judge from texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, is recognized for two minutes. mr. poe: thank you, mr. speaker. i think a little history is in order here because only congress can remove a federal judge. it's part of the checks and balances in our constitution. it prevents the executive, who doesn't like what a judge is doing, from taking that person out of office. it prevents other judges in the united states in the judicial branch from removing a judge when they don't like that judge's opinion. that is our duty today to resolve this issue. over my career i have been somewhat critical of federal judges but the reason is because of a philosophical difference sometimes with interpretation of the constitution and constitutional law. for the most part, most of our judges, the hundreds that serve all over the united states in the third branch of government have the utmost of integrity and demeanor. in our judicial branch, i would hope we would always have the best legal minds on the bench, not those -- not the best legal minds that appear before the bench as attorneys. unfortunately, that's not universally true because our federal judges are underpaid, the lawyers that appear before them for the most part make more than the federal judge. but they serve not because of money. they serve because of their pride and belief in our constitution and public service. judge kent is the exception to this rule. we are past the stage of allegations because he made admissions against his own interests in a court of law sufficient to convict him of a felony to the degree it is an abuse of office. abuse of duty. while serving on the bench in a courtroom. that's basically the end of the story. it is a felony, it's a high crime and misdemeanor. his actions since the conviction show a haughty spirit and total disregard for misconduct. in the united states we don't pay federal judges to go to the penitentiary. he should be impeached today by this body. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from iowa, mr. king, also a member of the judiciary committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. king: i thank the gentleman from texas for yielding. first i want to thank all of those who volunteered on this task force for impeachment and i want to thank chairman conyers and ranking member smith for pulling this together in their professional fashion and people on our side of the aisle and mr. schiff of california who has conducted himself, i think, with a solid degree of professionalism throughout the proceedings. i'm very well aware, mr. speaker, that this is a rare and extraordinary step this congress is taking. and that this is a serious moment. when i read through this report that's been produced by the task force, pulled together the data in a compressed fashion, it's appalling to me this went on as long as it did i will say, when the conviction came down and the sentence was made, the 33 months in the federal penitentiary to judge kent this congress acted immediately and quickly and in a bipartisan fashion to do our constitutional duty and brought this through the hearing and the committee action to this floor and with urgency and ready to send it to the united states senate who i believe will act immediately with dispatch. as i look at this, i see this as an abuse, as arbitrary power. the high crime and misdemeanor we're talking about is sexual abuse of subordinates and the arbitrary power of using the official oppression of the power of his office and the threat of removing them from their jobs if they raised a voice and also the threat that no one would believe them because he had manipulated the others around him and to some degree i believe that's true system of it's essential that we take this extraordinary step, mr. speaker, and i am gratified that this congress has acted immediately, pulled themselves together to take this action in a bipartisan fashion, a solidly constitutional fashion. we have, i think, added to today and will continue to add to the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors and further put into the record a solid foundation and sent a warning out to other judges that might think they could abuse this power. i urge adoption of this language that's here and i commend my colleagues and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i yield one and a half minutes to the gentleman from georgia, dr. broun, also a member of the homeland security committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one and a half minutes. mr. broun: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend may remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. broun: i thank the jilt for yielding. i rise today in support of this resolution. this judge should be and i think will be impeached with this resolution. it's about time for this body to do its constitutional authority to be a check on judges. unfortunately, this congress has not fulfilled its constitutional authority in many instances. article 1, section 1, sentence 1 says all legislative powers therein granted shall be vested in the congress of the united states which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives. we have had a perversion of the constitution by both administrations of both parties in the presidency as well as by congress. the constitution has been perverted. we all swear to uphold the constitution. against enemies both foreign and domestic. we've got a lot of domestic enemies of the constitution and i think enough is enough. under the constitution, in the writings of our founding fathers in the federalist papers, including the first u.s. supreme court chief justice, they very clearly delineated what they meant for the constitution to mean. and it's time that we as congress took our rightful place as being the strongest power of the federal government to stop this spending, to stop the destruction of our children's and grandchildrens' future and with that, i yield back. -- i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i'm the remaining speak thorne side, i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan i believe has the right to close. the gentleman from michigan has the right to close and reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. smith: i yield myself the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. smith: never before has a federal judge pled guilty to a felony, gone to jail and refused to resign immediately from the bench. in a clear attempt to get every penny possible for american taxpayers, judge kent who pled guilty to obstruction of justice and is currently in prison serving a 33 month sentence, submit a letter to the president resigning effective june 1, 2010. the law does not require judge kent to step aside from the bench, even though he's a convicted felon. every day rehe mains in office he receives his taxpayer funded salary. congress has taken up this impeachment inquiry and moved quickly to ensure that judge kent is remove fled bench. his continued attempts to gain the judicial system are just another example of how judge kent abused his position of authority. earlier this month, the house impeachment task force heard testimony from judge kent's two victims. his victims described the living nightmare they experienced while working for him. they were subjected to physical and verbal sexual abuse from year, ranging from lewd comments to forced physical sexual conduct. neither woman felt she could file a complaint without losing her job. judge kent warned all of his staff that disloyalty was grounds for removal. it was his ability to intimidate his staff into violence that perpetuated his abuse of authority. today's vote is necessary to ensure that justice prevails. when a judge is given a lifetime appointment, it's a tremendous honor and responsibility. but when a judge takes advantage of their authority, they must be held accountable for any violation of those principles of justice. congress must put an end to judge kent's abuse of authority and exploitation of american taxpayers. i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the four articles of impeachment and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. conyers: we would like to close on this side by calling a senior member of the judiciary committee, jerry nadler of new york, who in addition is the serving member of the chair of the constitution subcommittee the remaining time on our side. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for 3 1/4 minutes. mr. nadler: i thank the chairman. mr. speaker, it is always a sad day when the house has to impeach a federal judge. yet today that's our constitutional duty. impeachment is a power congress rarey uses both because it's rare that a federal judge will so abuse his position that impeachment is required and because it could affect the independence of the judiciary. the constitution reserve this is extraordinary remedy for extreme cases. this regrettably is one of those cases. the task force established by this house to inquire into whether judge kent should be impeached has recommended the articles of impeachment we are considering today. i want to comment the members of the task force and the chairman, mr. schiff, for their independent, diligent and thorough investigation. the evidence they assembled is copious and sobering. they made a strong case for impeachment as both copious and -- as necessary. he has been sentenced to 33 months in prison. as part of the plea proceed he signed a statement in which he admitted and described the conduct that constituted the conduct he signed the statement under oath before the court at the time of the plea. in his signed statement he admitted to making false statements to a special investigatory committee about court employees he also admitted having nonconsensual sexual contact with two subordinate court employees. two of the articles of impeachment allege judge kent sexually assaulted these two women. his admissions he had nonconsensual sexual contact with the women is indeed a powerful one. any unwanted sexual touching can be considered a sexual assault so judge kent by his own words has come close to admitting that he had -- he assaulted the women. the only remaining question being the extend of the assault that question has been addressed by the sworn testimony of the women before the task force, detailing judge kent's repeated abuse of his authority by coercing nonconsensual sex at the price of retaining their jobs. in short, the executive branch may prosecute a federal judge for violation of the criminal laws and the jew darblee branch may punish that federal judge upon his conviction but only the congress can remove a federal judge if it determines his behavior renders him unfit to hold office. in circumstances such as these, where judge kent misused the power of his office to undermine rather than uphold the law, and where he abused his power as a federal judge by sexually assaulting subordinates and lying to the fifth circuit investigatory committee about that, our duty to inpeach is clear. for these reasons, i intend to for these reasons, i intend to vote in favor of each parol of