Congress for Dummies

Floor Speech

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, after reading these quotes, it seems like one thing is pretty clear--our colleagues across the aisle have forgotten how Congress works.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. I did know that. It is called congressional oversight authority.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. But Congressman Gallego, why haven't we seen more of these checks and balances in action?

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. That is why we would like to enter into the Record Article I of the United States Constitution.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Okay, so lesson one, Congress can actually pass legislation.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. No. You just need 218 votes in the House and 51 votes in the Senate.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Almost anything. As Speaker Ryan has stated, he thinks we need legislation to prevent the separation of families, of kids who were ripped away from their parents by the Trump administration. We agree. Democrats have introduced the Keep Families Together Act. That has not gotten a vote, and we think we should have a vote on that bill.

In addition, there are numerous pieces of legislation that can make our economy better, that can help our healthcare, make sure that we deal with the opioid crisis, and numerous pieces of legislation such as investing in infrastructure, none of which has gotten a vote so far.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. We could do that, too.

There are several pieces of legislation as well that the Republican- controlled majority will not let us have a vote on.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Exactly. It is called the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, which has both Republican and Democratic support in both the House and the Senate.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. That is a great question. That is why we are here today, to explain to America that the majority is recessing for 5 weeks without completing its work on behalf of the American people. That is shameful.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Another thing Congress gets to do is, we get to hold hearings. The Judiciary Committee, on which I sit, has not held a single hearing on any of the issues that are important to Americans. Instead, we have done two hearings on whether groups like Diamond and Silk get enough Facebook likes. We also held a hearing on-- are you ready for this? Hillary Clinton's emails.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. It sure seems that way.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. The other thing the Constitution gives us a right to do is to issue subpoenas.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. It is very simple. It is a document that will require a witness to show up before a congressional hearing or to produce documents to congressional investigators.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. It sounds a little complicated.

Can you explain how it works?

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Ah, so what that means is Congress could actually subpoena the translator who was in the private 2-hour meeting between the President and Vladimir Putin of which Americans have no idea what was discussed.

Let me give an example of why that is bad for our country. Recently, the Russians attacked a U.S. general. Congressman Gallego and I both served on Active Duty in the military, and they are criticizing this U.S. general for allegedly not doing something that was discussed in that private, 2-hour meeting. It is certainly possible the U.S. general was wrong. It is also possible the Russians were making stuff up. We have no idea.

Congress needs to exercise its proper oversight authority so we understand what is happening between the United States and the Kremlin.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. I agree with you.

Why don't we now move on to our last lesson.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Okay. So just to recap, Congress can pass legislation, we can hold hearings, we can issue subpoenas, and now we can request investigations.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. So what can Congress do with these inspectors general?

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. Ah, so, for example, we request an inspector general to look into Wilbur Ross's alleged insider trading. We can request an inspector general to look at all their waste, fraud, and abuse of various Cabinet officials in Trump's Cabinet of corruption where they are spending large amounts of taxpayers' money on luxury private travel.

We could do that, right?

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. But, again, let me just remind people that my committee that I sit on, the House Judiciary Committee, actually did exercise that power, and they used that power to look into, again, ready for this? Hillary Clinton's emails.

The last time I checked, Hillary Clinton is not President, nor is she running for President. It is another example of the Republicans in this House who are focused on the past. Democrats are focused on the future. We want to reduce healthcare costs, address the opioid epidemic, invest in infrastructure to increase wages, and get corruption out of government.

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Mr. TED LIEU of California. It is really simple. At the end of the day, Congress should not be going on recess before we do the important work on behalf of the American people.

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