Recommending that Attorney General Eric Holder Be Found in Contempt of Congress

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Speaker, there is no joy in today's action; but the fact remains, 18 months after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered, the Justice Department has failed to hold anybody accountable for the mistakes of Operation Fast and Furious.

As a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, I have witnessed firsthand the stonewalling by the Department of Justice and Attorney General Holder. At every question, the Justice Department has refused to acknowledge what they know about the gunwalking tactics that led to Agent Terry's death. Most recently, they have hid behind the President's erroneous claims of executive privilege, an action the President denounced as lacking transparency when he was campaigning. The Department has stood in open defiance of Congress' moral and constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of this affair.

The family of Agent Terry deserves to know who approved Fast and Furious. They have the right to know who had the power to stop this program before he was murdered, and they need an explanation as to why the Department of Justice took 9 months to withdraw their false denial that they had ever let guns walk into Mexico.

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Mr. WALBERG. To some on the other side of the aisle, it seems fine that the people who authorized this operation still work within the Department of Justice. I don't agree. They'd rather play politics than uphold Congress' right to investigate.

Today's vote is about accountability. It's about making sure another 2,000 firearms don't end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. And it's about bringing closure to the Terry family.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and honor the memory of Brian Terry.

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