Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on June 20, 2017, I notified the majority leader of my intent to object to any unanimous consent request relating to the nomination of Steven A. Engel, of the District of Columbia, to be the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, until he adequately responded to my questions regarding his views on the OLC's May 1, 2017, opinion, ``Authority of Individual Members of Congress to Conduct Oversight of the Executive Branch.'' As I have previously noted, the opinion erroneously states that individual Members of Congress are not constitutionally authorized to conduct oversight. It creates a false distinction between oversight and what it calls nonoversight requests. It relegates requests from individual Members for information from the executive branch to Freedom of Information Act requests. I have written a letter to the President requesting that the OLC opinion be rescinded. The executive branch should properly recognize that individual Members of Congress have a constitutional role in seeking information from the executive branch and should work to voluntarily accommodate those requests. My June 12, 2017, letter to Mr.…”