Michelle Fischbach: “I thank my colleague from Maryland and from the Rules Committee for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield…”

“I thank my colleague from Maryland and from the Rules Committee for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, once again, the select committee is acting to fulfill a predetermined narrative. It seems increasingly clear that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to prolong this political process to distract Americans from the very real issues concerning this country. We have record-high inflation, a flood of immigrants at our southern border, a workforce and supply chain crisis, and instead of working toward real ways we can combat these crises, or, in fact, even admitting that these crises exist, we are back here, arguing if we should continue down a path of yet another partisan investigation of questionable motive and purpose. {time} 1215 That said, there are several questions that need to be resolved before we can continue with this vote. The courts have found that the power rests with Congress over subpoenas to private individuals if they serve a legitimate legislative purpose. A legitimate legislative purpose would be issuing subpoenas to the leaders of the D.C. National Guard and the Sergeant at Arms so that we can find out what gaps in communications and authorities need to be filled and find solutions to ensure this doesn't happen again. But have those been issued? Unfortunately not.…”