Newport Beach Rep. Campbell targets Maryland hoops honors

Rep. John Campbell (R-Newport Beach) on Tuesday criticized a resolution written by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) that would honor the University of Maryland for having the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and for getting into the NCAA Tournament.

Campbell sponsored a similar resolution after the men’s volleyball team from UC Irvine, a university in his district, won the 2009 national championship. Hoyer pulled it from the floor.

It’s just a matter of principle, Campbell said during his remarks on the House floor. He pointed to what he called a loss of a sense of equity and fairness in the House.

“It seems like if a school is represented by someone from the minority party, they don’t get a recognition, whereas if perhaps if they are from the majority, they do,” Campbell said. “It seems like there are different thresholds, different standards, different ways that things happen in this House rather than simple equity and fairness.”

Campbell encouraged his colleagues to oppose the resolution to send a message that “process matters.”

“Little things like this aren’t nearly as important as big things, like the government-run health-care bill that we’re doing this week,” Campbell said. “But the fact is…that this little bit is endemic of what is going on in the bigger bills in this House, in the way it operates and has, unfortunately, in this Congress.”