mr. culberson: mr. speaker, i believe there's no constitutional role for the federal government in education. however, i understand that it's a function of this act to accept it voluntarily by each state but i'm concerned that state bureaucrats often accept the funds without any input from our local elected officials. i saw this in the texas house. i'm pleased that the gentleman from indiana and chairman kline worked with me to protect the 10th amendment and be sure that states knowingly accept the strings attached to these programs before receiving funding under this bill. i want to be clear that this provision simply ensures that locally affected officials and parents have the opportunity to stand up and voice concern or support for accepting federal funding at their state capital before unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat can accept that money and all the strings that come with them. i wanted to ask if the chairman concurs that this is the intent and result of the language you've included in the stud

mr. culberson: mr. speaker, i believe there's no constitutional role for the federal government in education. however, i understand that it's a function of this act to accept it voluntarily by each state but i'm concerned that state bureaucrats often accept the funds without any input from our local elected officials. i saw this in the texas house. i'm pleased that the gentleman from indiana and chairman kline worked with me to protect the 10th amendment and be sure that states knowingly accept the strings attached to these programs before receiving funding under this bill. i want to be clear that this provision simply ensures that locally affected officials and parents have the opportunity to stand up and voice concern or support for accepting federal funding at their state capital before unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat can accept that money and all the strings that come with them. i wanted to ask if the chairman concurs that this is the intent and result of the language you've included in the stud

mr. culberson, for five minutes. mr. culberson: thank you mr. speaker. i believe this debate over the funding for the detcht homeland security represents a pivotal moment in the history of the united states because it will, i think, determine whether or not we will continue to be a nation of laws, and whether or not we will preserve the american republic left to us by our founders. i always remember as benjamin franklin left the constitutional convention, a woman asked him, what kind of government have you given us, dr. franklin? he said a republic if you can keep it. my hero and mentor, thomas jefferson, always said a government was republican only in proportion to the extent that it embodied the will of the people. and this past november, the people of the united states decisively and overwhelmingly rejected the policies of bram -- barack obama. president obama said i'm not on the ballot but my policies are. the country spoke with one voice from coast to coast. said we are done. we want our elected officials to enforce the law. we want our borders secu