Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I believe the information being solicited is important, although I don't think that we need to pass a law to get it, and we shouldn't have to pass a law to get it. In that sense, I think the amendment is overkill. As chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs last Congress, I saw how incredibly difficult it was to get basic information and simple briefings from the Trump administration. So I am sympathetic to getting information from an administration. The checks and balances put in place by the Constitution require the executive branch, no matter the party, to be responsive to congressional oversight. As we saw during the last administration, the executive branch has become increasingly empowered to not cooperate with Congress on basic oversight matters; that much is true. The Foreign Affairs Committee has found statutorily mandated briefings, however, generally backfire. They give the executive branch an excuse not to provide basic briefings on important subject matters on which we do not mandate briefings through legislation. These topics vastly outnumber those with statutorily required briefings. By writing mandatory briefings into statute, Congress is conceding to the executive that it does not need to be responsive to legislative branch inquiries unless a statute says so. Although I am opposing this amendment, I think the information is important.…”