John Boehner’s pitch-perfect opening to the 112th Congress has just ended. In contrast to the previous Congress, he focused on “listening.” Rhetorically, it was an appropriate follow-on to the tea-party election. In sum, paraphrased: We hear you, you want us to get to work, not try to impress and spin you with grand words. Too much is at stake and we’ve got a lot to prove. It was a workman, not wordsmith speech. Appropriate to the people’s House, as they voters demand “hard work and tough decisions” (as Boehner put Congress’s charge) in the preservation of Founding freedoms. 

The text, as prepared: 

Madam Speaker, thank you for your kind words, and thank you for your service.  I’d like to welcome our new colleagues and their families.  My own family is here as well: my wife, Debbie, our daughters, Lindsay and Tricia; my brothers and sisters, brothers-and-sisters-in-law, and their children.

I am honored and humbled to represent a great, hard-working community in Congress.  The people of Ohio’s Eighth Congressional District continue to afford me the privilege to serve, for which I am deeply grateful.

We gather here today at a time of great challenges.  Nearly one in ten of our neighbors are looking for work.  Health care costs are still rising for families and small businesses.  Our spending has caught up with us, and our debt will soon eclipse the size of our entire economy.  Hard work and tough decisions will be required of the 112th Congress.

No longer can we fall short.  No longer can we kick the can down the road.  The people voted to end business as usual, and today we begin carrying out their instructions.

In the Catholic faith, we enter into a season of service by having ashes marked on our foreheads.  The ashes remind us that life in all its forms is fragile – our time on this Earth, fleeting.  As the ashes are delivered, we hear those humbling words: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The American people have humbled us.  They have refreshed our memories as to just how temporary the privilege to serve is.  They have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them.  That includes this gavel, which I accept cheerfully and gratefully, knowing I am but its caretaker.  After all, this is the people’s House.  This is their Congress.  It’s about them, not us.  What they want is a government that is honest, accountable and responsive to their needs.  A government that respects individual liberty, honors our heritage, and bows before the public it serves.

Let’s start with the rules package the House will consider today.  If passed, it will change how this institution operates, with an emphasis on real transparency, greater accountability, and a renewed focus on the Constitution.

Our aim will be to give government back to the people.  In seeking this goal, we will part with some of the rituals that have come to characterize this institution under majorities Republican and Democratic alike.  We will dispense with the conventional wisdom that bigger bills are always better; that fast legislating is good legislating; that allowing additional amendments and open debate makes the legislative process “less efficient” than our forefathers intended.

These misconceptions have been the basis for the rituals of modern Washington.  The American people have not been well served by them.

Today, mindful of the lessons of the past, we open a new chapter.

Legislators and the public will have three days to read bills before they come to a vote.  Legislation will be more focused, properly scrutinized, and constitutionally sound.  Committees, once bloated, will be smaller, with a renewed mission, including oversight.  Old rules that have made it easy to increase spending will be replaced by new reforms that make it easier to cut spending.  We will start by cutting Congress’s own budget.  Above all else, we will welcome the battle of ideas, encourage it, and engage in it – openly, honestly, and respectfully.  As the chamber closest to the people, the House works best when it is allowed to work its will.  I ask all members of this body to join me in recognizing this common truth.

To my colleagues in the majority, my message is this: we will honor our Pledge to America, built through a process of listening to the people, and we will stand firm on the Constitutional principles that built our party, and built a nation.  We will do these things, however, in a manner that restores and respects the time-honored right of the minority to an honest debate and a fair, open process.

To my friends in the minority, I offer a commitment.  Openness – once a tradition of this institution, but increasingly scarce in recent decades, will be the new standard.  There were no open rules in the House in the last Congress.  In this one, there will be many.  With this restored openness, however, will come a restored responsibility.  You will not have the right to willfully disrupt the proceedings of the People’s House.  But you will always have the right to a robust debate in open process that allows you to represent your constituents. . .to make your case, offer alternatives, and be heard.  In time, this framework will, I believe, restore the House of Representatives as a place where the people’s will is done.  It will also, I hope, help rebuild trust among us and the people we serve, and in so doing, provide a guidepost for those who follow us in the service of our nation.

To our new members – Democratic and Republican – as you take the oath today, I know you will do so mindful of this shared goal, and the trust placed in you by your constituents.  As Speaker, I view part of my job as helping each of you do your job well, regardless of party.  My hope is that every new Member – and indeed, every Member – will be comfortable approaching me with matters of the House. We will not always get it right.  We will not always agree on what is right.  A great deal of scar tissue has built up on both sides of the aisle.  We cannot ignore that, nor should we.  My belief has always been, we can disagree without being disagreeable to each other.  That’s why it is critical this institution operate in a manner that permits a free exchange of ideas, and resolves our honest differences through a fair debate and a fair vote.  We may have different – sometimes, very different – ideas for how to go about achieving the common good, but it is our shared goal.  It is why we serve.

Let us now move forward humble in our demeanor, steady in our principles, and dedicated to proving worthy of the trust and confidence that has been placed in us. If we brace ourselves to do our duty, and to do what we say we are going to do, there is no telling what together we can accomplish for the good of this great and honorable nation.  More than a country, America is an idea, and it is our job to pass on to our posterity the blessings bestowed to us.

I wish you all the very best.  Welcome to the people’s House.  Welcome to the 112th Congress.