Tom Coburn: “I will repeat the three points I think are important. No. 1 is we do not know enough. The next amendment relates to the…”

“I will repeat the three points I think are important. No. 1 is we do not know enough. The next amendment relates to the Justice Department if we do know enough. No. 2 is I am very hesitant to set a precedent that invites the Justice Department to come into the Senate and House to investigate us. No. 3, and finally, the Justice Department does not have to do it even if we say they shall. They do not have to do it. There is no force of law that we can make the Justice Department come and investigate us. If we did, our forefathers would roll over in their graves. That is what the separation of powers is all about. When we go directly to the Justice Department, we shirk our responsibility to control our own house and bring our own Members under it. I urge my colleagues to not support this new precedent setting seeking of the Justice Department, in violation of the separation of powers, to come into the Senate and the House to do an investigation before we have done our own investigation to find out the jot and tittles. I yield the floor.”