Relating to Consideration of House Report 112-546 and Accompanying Resolution, and Providing for Consideration of House Resolution 706, Authorizing Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to Initiate or Intervene in Judicial Proceedings to Enforce Certain Subpoenas

Floor Speech

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Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, every Member of this Chamber wants to get to the bottom of the issue of the tragic death of Officer Terry. Every Member of the Chamber wants to find out how the ATF and Justice Department were run as related to that tragedy.

So the committee that's looking into this refused to hear the testimony of the person running the ATF.

The committee that's looking into this refused to hear the testimony of the Assistant Attorney General, who was responsible for the ATF and talked about this with Attorney General Holder.

The committee that is responsible for this received thousands of pages of documents from the Attorney General to try to get to the bottom of the matter.

This procedure does violence to the American Constitution. Yes, we have three separate branches. Those branches are designed to respect each other's prerogatives. Those branches are designed to avoid a constitutional confrontation and engage in one only when necessary.

In the 225-year history of this institution, there has never been a vote like this before--never.

Is it because the Attorney General didn't turn over documents? He turned over thousands of pages of documents.

Is it because the people that know about this issue haven't been made available? To the contrary. The committee refused to hear the testimony of the head of the ATF and the Assistant Attorney General.

This procedure diminishes the House. It vandalizes the Constitution. It should not go forward.

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