Insisting Department of Justice Comply with Requests and Subpoenas
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and appreciate the time.
I would say that that is a good bill, and I am glad to have been an original cosponsor with the gentleman from North Carolina on the bill related to making sure that families are not separated.
Now, the previous gentleman also said for us to do our jobs. It is curious, because, as I understand it, part of our job is to make sure that we are overseeing the Federal Government. Our Founding Fathers created something that had never been created before, a checks-and- balance system.
There was supposed to be a natural tension between the various branches, and Congress is supposed to be an equal branch with the power of oversight over the administrative branch to make sure that they are following the laws and to make sure that they are meting out justice evenhandedly. That is what this resolution is about.
But Congress too often sits back and does not do anything. It just says: Oh, well, we can't get that information. We are so sorry. This resolution points out that we have been patiently waiting for some of these documents for years, for months, for weeks, for the administrative branch of government to respond to its coequal branch, the United States Congress, and they have refused to do so.
I would submit that this is a very measured resolution; that it does not immediately call for holding somebody in contempt, or holding somebody to find that somebody should be impeached. It says, instead: Here is the deadline. What we are trying to seek here are the facts. If you are afraid of the facts, then, yes, you stand up on the floor and you rail about all other kinds of issues. But the facts, the truth, needs to come out for the American people.
So I would submit that this resolution is very reasonable and ought to be passed. Because if there is not a response, it is our duty to hold those who do not respond properly in contempt.
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Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, it is our duty, as this Congress, to find and to hold in contempt those people who do not respond, and then to take their persons into possession and have them explain to a judge how it is that they plan to purge themselves of that contempt.
It is reasonable that we give them notice before such action is taken.
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