Providing for Consideration of H.R. Homeland Security Improvement Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening Standards Act; Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Expressing Sense of the House with Respect to Whistleblower Complaint Made to Inspector General of Intelligence Community; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the floor leader for her leadership on this.

Our colleague from Arizona chides us because we campaigned on healthcare. We campaigned on healthcare, proudly, and we are defending preexisting conditions coverage against every effort by the Republicans to destroy it by repealing the Affordable Care Act in this body. And we have defended it and we continue to defend it in court as they are trying to destroy preexisting conditions coverage in Texas right now.

We hope that they will work with us on lowering prescription drug prices. So I believe that my colleague should take up her own invitation to get to work for the American people.

We have no problem advancing the public policy interests of the American people while we defend the Constitution and the rule of law against the conduct of this President.

Now, we had a resolution last night saying, obey the law, telling the administration there is a very simple whistleblower statute which gives people the opportunity to come forward to say that there is a violation of the National Security Act in a way that flags a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law, and then that goes to the inspector general of the Department.

It went to the inspector general, and that is an inspector general appointed by President Trump himself. And the inspector general found that the whistleblower's complaint was credible and it was urgent. It went to a serious problem.

At that point, it goes to the Director of National Intelligence, and that Director has 7 days to turn it over to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The 7 days came and went. This is the first time in American history when the Director of National Intelligence did not turn over such a complaint to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

So the U.S. Senate, in a bipartisan fashion, all the Democrats and all of the Republicans, got together and said to the administration, to the Director of National Intelligence: Turn that complaint over immediately to Congress.

We had the exact same resolution last night, and our colleagues said: Well, we don't like your resolution. It is too profuse. There is too much language, as the gentlewoman said. We think that it may disparage the conduct of the President.

So what we did is we took them at their word. We purged all of that language and we made it an exact replica of the Senate resolution that they were praising last night. They loved it last night. They said: That is exactly what this should be. So we have conformed it precisely to what they are asking for, and they still oppose it.

What we need is an emphatic, unanimous, bipartisan statement that the Federal laws of the United States must be respected by this administration. The lawlessness must stop.

A whistleblower is someone acting in the highest, most noble traditions of the country. He is not a traitor, as some have implied. A whistleblower is not someone who has gone over to the other side of the country. A whistleblower is someone working for the American people.

Both parties used to understand that, not just Democrats, but Republicans used to understand that. Apparently, the Senate Republicans do understand it, and yet, now, we have a situation where we are saying: We have got a resolution, an exact replica of the Senate resolution where we are asking the administration just to comply with the law. Come forward and give us the complaint as you are required to do by law.

The statute uses the phrase, ``shall turn over to Congress.'' ``Shall,'' that means must--not may, not maybe do it. You must do it. Every other President, every other administration, every other Director of National Intelligence has understood that.

We asked our colleagues to stand by what they told us in committee last night, which was they liked the Senate version, and they urged us to use the Senate version. We are using the Senate version, and we hope that we will have an emphatic, bipartisan statement to the executive branch of government they must turn over this material according to law.

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