Authorizing the Committee on the Judiciary to Initiate or Intervene in Judicial Proceedings to Enforce Certain Subpoenas

Floor Speech

Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, the issue today is very simple. It is simply about the right of the American people and Congress to get information. That is it.

All this resolution does is allow us to enforce congressional subpoenas. These are documents and witnesses we want, and it allows us to go to Federal court to enforce it. That is all this resolution does.

Why are Republicans so scared of this resolution? Because they know we are going to win in court. We have won three times against the Trump administration.

But why do we even have to go to court to do this? Because the Trump administration is engaging in unprecedented obstruction. And it is not just about the Mueller report; it is about all areas.

So, for example, right now, the Trump administration is suing to eliminate healthcare coverage for people with preexisting conditions. We want to know more about that. We can't get it. We want to know about a lot of areas that we cannot get, so we want to go to Federal court to get this enforced.

What are Republicans doing? They are making stuff up. They are saying somehow we are asking the Attorney General to do things that will make him violate the law. That is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I am just going to end with this simple example.

The Attorney General of the United States gave the Republican ranking member of the Judiciary Committee the right to see their unredacted Mueller report. Was that illegal? No. But I can't see it.

That is wrong. There is no basis for that. We are simply going to go to Federal court. We are going to litigate it, and we are going to win.

All this resolution does is it allows us to enforce congressional subpoenas in Federal court. It is about not allowing the Trump administration to cover things up.

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