In her farewell speech on the House floor, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is “under the authority” of the ancient biblical figure Moses.

“We have so much to be thankful for, so much to be grateful for,” she said Tuesday. “For many people who have never had the privilege of being in this House chamber before, this is the room where the laws of our nation are formulated. Our founders meant that the House of Representatives would be the most powerful form of government. Why? Because it would be these 435 members that we eventually became, we would hold the power of the purse, we would hold the nation’s credit card, and it would be up to us to decide what we spent money on, and what we didn’t.”

“We are the lawgivers, because the people of this country have given us the privilege of the election certificate to make the laws. We must never forget that it is by the consent of the governed that we rule and we decide our laws.”

“And as I look about this chamber, we are ringed with the silhouettes of lawgivers throughout history,” Bachmann continued, referencing the 23 marble relief portraits in the House Chamber that were installed between 1949 and 1950.

“And yet only one lawgiver has the distinction of not having a silhouette, but having the full face be revealed by the artist. That lawgiver is Moses. Moses is directly above the double doors that lead into the centermost part of this chamber, and in the face of Moses, his eyes look straight upon not only our nation’s motto, ‘In God We Trust,’ but Moses’ face looks full on into the face of the Speaker of the House. Daily, the Speaker of the House as he stands up in his authority and in his podium recognizes that he is a man under authority, just as Moses was a man under authority.”

“Because you see, Mr. Speaker, Moses is given for the full honor of the greatest lawgiver in this chamber, because he was chosen by the God that we trust to be entrusted with the basis of all law. The ‘basis of all law’ as was written by Blackstone, the famous English jurist, was the Ten Commandments, that were given by none other than the God we trust on Mount Sinai,” the congresswoman said.

“We know those laws, those laws are the fundamental laws of mankind, and here in the United States, the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses is the very foundation of the law that has given happiness and the rise of the greatest prosperity that any nation has known before.”

“Mr. Speaker, it could be no coincidence that this nation, knowing and enjoying the heights of such great happiness and such great prosperity, that it could be built upon that foundation of the Ten Commandments and of the law given by the God in whom we trust.”