Elijah Cummings

That's not what I asked you. I said do you see it as a major problem?

What about the COLA? One of your most egregious proposals is to slash $50 billion worth of cost-of-living-adjustments from current retirees and their survivors. So you want to take from those who can least afford it and give to the richest…

If the United States Government were a business, it would be in the service industry.

I think we need to look and see whether other agencies are doing this kind of thing, and we need to address that.

Because what happens, as you can imagine, if people feel reluctant to communicate with their Representatives, we can't do our job. You can't either, right?

But we are now into year 2 of the Trump administration, and, at some point, this committee will have to start conducting serious, credible oversight of the Trump administration.

I know my Republican colleagues want to talk about former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and that is all well and good.

But so far, the retiring GOP chairman has not acted on calls by his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, to bring Pruitt before his committee to personally answer lawmakers questions.

This is a very important hearing to me because I live in a neighborhood where many of these people return, and I see what they go through.

I do care about public safety. There are some people that need to be in prison and probably for a very, very long time.

Mr. Cummings, Mr. Cummings, I can't get a job, man. I can't get a job. I want to do for my family. I can't get a job.

I have been in Congress now for 20 years and I have been through and seen a lot of field hearings.

I want to begin by thanking Chairman Gowdy for calling today's very important hearing.

I cannot come into this hospital without saying thank you to Hopkins for saving my life.

No, I'm not worried at all, because the people that I--every IG that I've ever met have been very honorable people, and they are going to do what is right no matter what, and uphold the Constitution.

I hereby move to subpoena TSA officials Huban Gowadia, Francine Kerner, and Steven Cohen to appear before this committee.

Inspectors general serve a critical role by providing an independent check on the executive branch.

The Oversight Committee is the primary investigative body in the House, and we rely tremendously on IGs in conducting our own oversight work.

The work that you and your staff members do is more important now than ever.

Shortchanging the census is penny wise and pound foolish.

The Census Bureau is dangerously underfunded and has been for years, and unless we do something about it right now...

We cannot afford to allow that to happen. This is the United States of America, the exceptional nation.

Right now, however, Penn Station is simply the place where folks come to catch a train.

Penn Station is an asset and has tremendous potential, and has been untapped for too many years.

Amtrak is a vital component of our Nation's transportation network, and it is past time for us to make investments needed to modernize Amtrak's infrastructure.