Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2979

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Senate, I think the person we should start with is the former Secretary of State. She has had, to put it charitably, innumerable challenges on the topic of transparency.

Let's just look at one. All we need to do is look at the way she exposed some of our Nation's most highly classified information by setting up a private email server in her home. The ensuing investigation produced nothing but stonewalling, obfuscation, and misleading statements she made to the American public.

When FBI Director James Comey announced the agency was closing the investigation, his statements made clear that Hillary Clinton had not been telling the truth. She did send and she did receive classified information, again, at some of the various highest levels. Director Comey said she and her staff who aided and abetted her were ``extremely careless in their handling of this highly sensitive information.''

In response, I have introduced legislation with the junior Senator from Colorado, Senator Gardner, to help hold her and her staff accountable. The bill is called the Trust Act and it would revoke the security clearance of any person found to have been extremely careless in the handling of classified information, and it would keep them from receiving a security clearance in the future. It would also clarify that when someone has been found by investigators to have been extremely careless in handling classified information, that is tantamount to gross negligence.

So I would ask the Senator from Oregon to modify his request so S. 2979 and S. 3135 be discharged from their respective committees and the Senate proceed to their immediate consideration. I would ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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