Political Quotes

“I am going to support this resolution, but I just want to say I regret keenly that we are giving up in this resolution the right to immunize witnesses. We should be very jealous of our prerogatives and the right of oversight by Congress rests in the constitution. It may well be to properly fulfill our constitutional duty of oversight we might have to give immunity to some witness. I hope not, and I think that can be agreed upon by people on this investigating committee. But why do we yield to Mr. Fiske whose job is to prosecute, search out, investigate and report on whether criminal activity has occurred? Our job is to oversee how this institution worked and how the people worked it, and it may be that we will need to grant immunity to somebody. Mr. Speaker, we should be jealous of our powers just as the President is jealous of executive privilege. All Presidents have resisted the War Powers Act. I say to my colleagues, you don't diminish the office during your tenure, and we shouldn't diminish the power of any and every investigating committee of the House by yielding in the beginning before we get into hearings a power that may well be necessary for us to fulfill our responsibility for proper oversight.”