By Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (Cross-posted at DailyKos)
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=Republicans_Block_Investigation
You may recall that a few weeks ago I introduced a resolution of
inquiry
to obtain Justice Department documents about the President's domestic
spying program. Many of you are no doubt familiar with the procedure
for
resolutions of inquiry; however, for those who are not, a brief
explanation. A resolution of inquiry requests information or documents
from the Executive Branch. The Committee to which it is referred must
vote on it within a specified period of time or the full House must
consider it. As a practical matter, if the Republicans want to dodge an
issue, they refer the bill to Committee and then "adversely report" it,
which kills it, stopping the request for documents and protecting every
non-Committee Republican from having to vote on it.
Today, the House Judiciary Committee considered my resolution of
inquiry
on the domestic spying program. The Resolution was rejected 16 to 21,
with all Democrats and one Republican (Congressman Hostetler) voting
for
it. A few quick impressions: first, I was surprised at how half hearted
the Republican defense of the program was. I would even go further --
while some offered a full throated defense of the program, many of my
Republican colleagues seemed almost sheepish about it, and many did not
speak about it at all.
Second, Republicans repeatedly asserted that the documents were not
needed because Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner has unilaterally
submitted 51 questions (pdf) to the Attorney General, and that the
Attorney General would testify at a general oversight hearing at some
undetermined point in the future. I and the other Democratic Members
responded that this was wholly inadequate, and that to fulfill their
constitutional oversight role the Committee needed to obtain documents
from the Administration and hold separate hearings on the NSA issue.
[continued]
Complete article:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=Republicans_Block_Investigation
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