Liz Saville Roberts: “I renew the invitation to my friend from New Jersey to take a look at our committee's work. Our staff is not…”

“I renew the invitation to my friend from New Jersey to take a look at our committee's work. Our staff is not understaffed. I know some people like to have more staff. They have been working very hard. I can direct you to the information that will answer every single one of the questions set forth in your amendment which reflects exactly the mission of our inquiry. All told, over 40 Members of Congress, numerous professional staff, and countless career nonpolitical employees in the executive branch have looked into this topic which you are suggesting we have another 12 Members do the same thing. Washington has been overrun with independent blue ribbon commissions. The intelligence community has been a frequent target of these activities--Aspin, Brown, Hart, Rudman, and the Bremer Commission, the 9/11 Commission, and the list goes on and on. We have to consider the unseen effects caused by the constant, unrelenting reviews of the intelligence community. I do not discount the importance of reexaminations of our past actions. We have had oversight responsibility. If we don't know the mistakes of the past, we are bound to repeat them. But following September 11, we asked intelligence analysts to aggressively pursue all available leads: Please connect every possible dot, even when the connections may seem weak. We cannot continue to castigate these analysts when they make reasoned judgments based on the available information.”