Recommending that the House Find Lois G. Lerner in Contempt of Congress

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the chairman yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, it is amazing. The American people still have not received answers that they deserve, I believe, from Lois Lerner. Just sitting here on the floor and listening for the last few minutes, it just really amazes me about what is being said.

It is said that, if the chairman had done this or if we had done something else, if we had not done this, and maybe she would have had more time, and maybe we would have found out the truth. Well, maybe if I turn my head sideways and squinted real hard, maybe she would have talked then.

But she did talk. She said a lot of things, including making 17 different factual assertions, and then decided: oops, don't want to talk anymore.

Here is the problem: no one has said or even implied that you can't assert your Fifth Amendment right. That has never been said on this floor. It has never been asserted by any member of the Republican Party.

What has been asserted is you can't come in and you can't say: I have done nothing wrong, no problem, I am clean; and, oh, by the way, quit asking because I am not going to answer any of your questions.

When you do that, then you are taking advantage of a system that you are not supposed to be taking advantage of. She could have walked in, from minute one, and said: Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, I am not going to answer a question. I am asserting my Fifth Amendment right.

She did not do that, and what we have now is not a waste of time. I believe there are a lot of things. The Republican majority is working on economic development, but I think one of the things we have to reassert in this country is trust, and right now, our American people do not trust us, and they do not believe that the government is in their favor.

Instances like this, when they are being asked inappropriate questions, when they are trying to fulfill their rights and freedom of speech, this is why we are here. You can't keep doing it.

Ms. Lerner needs to be held in contempt because all I have found on the floor of this House today is arguments that keep coming, that remind me of the song from Pink Floyd. I am just comfortably numb at this point because the arguments don't matter.

We never said she couldn't use her Fifth Amendment right. She just chose to say: I didn't do anything wrong.

That is not the way this process works, Ms. Lerner. It is time to testify.

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