Pete Hoekstra: “I think it is time to bring some focus back to the issue. Reflecting back on this now I am saying we have heard that the…”

“I think it is time to bring some focus back to the issue. Reflecting back on this now I am saying we have heard that the time has come to now deal with this issue. I think we are long past the time to deal with this issue. We should have dealt with it 6 months ago. The gentleman and I talked about bringing it and pushing it forward 6 months ago. We talked to many of our colleagues. They encouraged us to wait until the Justice Department finished their probe, and in reality we should have moved forward then, because what has happened over the last 6 months has hurt the reputation of a number of Members of Congress, and has hurt the reputation of the House itself. If we go back and we take a look at the resolution which the gentleman authored, it is very simple. And I would quote from it that all we are doing is 'calling on the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to conduct an investigation into activities at the House post office to determine whether House rules were broken or whether public funds were embezzled by Members.' We are asking for an investigation to clear up a very specific charge.”