On the recordJuly 17, 2019
As a result, on April 2, more than 3 months ago, after a bipartisan vote, the committee subpoenaed these key documents, including a secret memo that the Department of Commerce wrote about the citizenship question and gave to the Department of Justice. The Departments have admitted to us that this memo does exist, but they refuse to produce this document and many others. I must say, to give credit where credit is due, that my good friend and colleague on the other side, Mr. Meadows, worked tirelessly to try to help us get the things that we needed. I appreciate that, trying to work in a bipartisan way. Going on from there, last month, in light of this obstruction, the Committee on Oversight and Reform passed a resolution to hold Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross in contempt of Congress. The vote was also bipartisan. However, many of our Republican colleagues apparently support the Trump administration's refusal to comply with duly authorized congressional subpoenas. Let me say to my colleagues that we need to be clear that we, as a body, have a constitutional duty to be a check on the executive branch. That is our job. Every 2 years, we swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. That is what we are supposed to do. Some of my colleagues claim that we were interfering with the Supreme Court's decision on this issue.…
