Congress for Dummies

Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, despite their united control of Congress, my Republican friends seem to think there is nothing they can do when Donald Trump acts in a matter that is contrary to our laws and our values. Here is what they have been saying:

Congressman Ryan Costello: There is nothing we can do to stop the President, let alone this President, from saying what he thinks or what he wants to say.

Speaker Ryan on immigration policy: The last thing I want to do is bring a bill out here that I know the President won't support.

Lastly, again, Speaker Ryan: Every morning I wake up in my office and scroll through Twitter to see which tweets that I will have to pretend I didn't see later on.

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Mr. GALLEGO. I yield to the gentleman.

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Mr. GALLEGO. But, Ted, did you know that there are actually concrete steps the majority party can take to exercise its power over the administration and hold it accountable for its actions?

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Mr. GALLEGO. That is right. When the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, it included checks and balances that allow the legislative branch, us, to oversee the executive branch, the President. It is part of what makes our Nation great.

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Mr. GALLEGO. That is a great question. Maybe our friends in the majority have forgotten how to use their power.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Great idea. So, let's start with a new class that we call Welcome to Congressional Oversight 101 or, as I like to call it, Congress for Dummies.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Isn't that hard?

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Mr. GALLEGO. What are some of the issues that Congress can pass legislation on, Ted?

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Mr. GALLEGO. Ted, for example, could we actually be protecting the Special Counsel from being fired by the President?

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Mr. GALLEGO. I believe there is an actual bill that has been introduced, specifically, that Ryan could actually bring to the floor, to protect the Special Counsel and not just talk about protecting the Special Counsel.

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Mr. GALLEGO. So why hasn't Speaker Ryan or the Republicans actually passed this bill?

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Mr. GALLEGO. We certainly have brought this up, and we will continue to be pushing this bill until it comes to the floor.

Let's move on to lesson 2.

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Mr. GALLEGO. It is important to remember the congressional committee chairman gets to decide what topics they hold hearings on.

So are you telling me the Judiciary Committee chairman is more interested in Hillary Clinton's emails from 2015 or maybe 2016 than currently dealing with attacks on our democracy from Russia, from Putin, or trying to figure out how we have basically abandoned and orphaned 2,600 families at the border?

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Mr. GALLEGO. So let's move on.

What is the third thing that we could be doing as Congress to actually put the executive in check, Ted?

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Mr. GALLEGO. Subpoenas. What is a subpoena?

You are a former Federal prosecutor. Please enlighten us, since somehow this Congress has forgotten that we could do subpoenas.

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Mr. GALLEGO. I don't know if you know this, Ted, but there is this neat little House rule called House rule XI, clause 2. Have you heard of this?

Can you explain how it works?

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Mr. GALLEGO. It is not. It is very simple. This clause allows House committees to issue subpoenas, which are legal documents that force somebody to do something, in this case either testify or give Congress documents.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Or we could do something really crazy and subpoena all the many administration officials and department heads who have gotten rich and richer by exploiting their public offices for private gain.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Lesson number 4, requesting investigations.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Every committee has jurisdiction over a set of agencies. Those agencies each have something called an inspector general. These officials are responsible for investigating waste, fraud, and abuse at each agency and reporting back to Congress.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Well, Ted, Congress can actually request an inspector general report.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Exactly.

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Mr. GALLEGO. So what have we learned today?

Unfortunately, we have learned that our Republican colleagues are unwilling or afraid, either-or, to use their power vested in them by the Constitution on behalf of the American people to keep the executive in check.

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Mr. GALLEGO. It is shameful that we are going on recess right now while we know that there are foreign adversaries targeting our elections, targeting our elected officials; we have a President that we cannot get straight answers out of, and this Republican-led Congress refuses to act.

So maybe it is time to turn control of this Chamber over to Members who are willing to hold this administration accountable.

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