[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 470 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 470

           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 21, 2009

   Mr. Bishop of Utah submitted the following resolution; which was 
                   referred to the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, a Representative from California, served 
        from 1997 to 2002 as Ranking Democratic Member of the House Permanent 
        Select Committee on Intelligence;
Whereas Representative Pelosi currently serves as Speaker of the House, a 
        position of considerable power and influence within the Congress;
Whereas title 3 of the United States Code designates the Speaker of the House as 
        third in line of succession to the Presidency;
Whereas Speaker Pelosi has publicly challenged the truthfulness of what she and 
        other congressional leaders were told by Central Intelligence Agency 
        officials about the agency's use of enhanced interrogation techniques on 
        suspected terrorists;
Whereas in an MSNBC interview on February 25, 2009, Speaker Pelosi stated, ``I 
        can say flat-out, they never told us that these enhanced interrogation 
        techniques were being used'';
Whereas Speaker Pelosi's public statements allege a sustained pattern of 
        deception by government intelligence officers charged by law with 
        informing Congress about the agency's activities;
Whereas when asked at a press conference on May 15, 2009, widely reported by the 
        news media, ``Madame Speaker, just to be clear, you're accusing the CIA 
        of lying to you in September?'' Speaker Pelosi stated, ``Yes'';
Whereas during the same press conference the Speaker subsequently stated, ``So 
        yes, I'm saying they are misleading, the CIA was misleading the 
        Congress'' and further, ``they mislead us all the time'' and ``they 
        misrepresented every step of the way'';
Whereas in a memorandum to CIA employees released publicly on May 15, 2009, Leon 
        Panetta, the CIA Director, stated, ``It is not our policy or practice to 
        mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency 
        indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our 
        contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers 
        briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing the 
        enhanced interrogation techniques that had been employed'';
Whereas national and international media reports on this controversy have 
        damaged the reputation of the House by raising questions about whether 
        the effectiveness of congressional oversight may have been undermined 
        through false or misleading statements by intelligence officials; and
Whereas in order to safeguard the reputation of the House it is imperative to 
        reconcile as soon as possible the aforementioned contradictory 
        statements by Speaker Pelosi and CIA Director Panetta: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) a Select Subcommittee of the Permanent Select Committee 
        on Intelligence shall be established to review and verify the 
        accuracy of the Speaker's aforementioned public statements;
            (2) the Select Subcommittee shall be comprised of four 
        members of the full committee, two appointed by the chairman of 
        the committee and two by its ranking minority member;
            (3) The subcommittee shall have the same powers to obtain 
        testimony and documents pursuant to subpoena authorized under 
        clause 2(m) of rule XI of the Rules of the House; and
            (4) the Select Subcommittee report its findings and 
        recommendations to the House not later than sixty calendar days 
        after adoption of this resolution.
                                 <all>