Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I intend to object to any unanimous consent request at the present time 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 Mr. Engel responds to questions I posed to him in a June 12, 2017, letter concerning a May 1, 2017, opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel entitled, ``Authority of Individual Members of Congress to Conduct Oversight of the Executive Branch.'' The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Mr. Engel's nomination on June 8, 2017, and my objection is not intended to question the credentials of Mr. Engel in any way. However, at that time, no member had sufficient opportunity to pose questions to Mr. Engel concerning the May 1, 2017, OLC opinion. I believe each Member of my committee and of the Senate should have the benefit of his views on the opinion as they consider his nomination to lead the office that created it. 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, and 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 I have written a letter to the President requesting that the OLC opinion be rescinded.…”