[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 712 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 712

Recommending that the Speaker of the House of Representatives not move 
to proceed to the consideration of the House Resolution finding Eric H. 
Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, in contempt 
 of Congress pursuant to the report of the Committee on Oversight and 
                           Government Reform.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 28, 2012

 Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas (for herself, Mr. Connolly of Virginia, Mr. 
 Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Brown of Florida, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Davis of 
Illinois, and Mr. Rangel) submitted the following resolution; which was 
                   referred to the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Recommending that the Speaker of the House of Representatives not move 
to proceed to the consideration of the House Resolution finding Eric H. 
Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, in contempt 
 of Congress pursuant to the report of the Committee on Oversight and 
                           Government Reform.

Whereas United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., joined the 
        Department of Justice right out of law school through the Department's 
        honors program and joined the newly created Public Integrity Section, 
        where he prosecuted corrupt local, State and Federal officials; was 
        appointed by President Reagan to the D.C. Superior Court; was appointed 
        by President Clinton to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of 
        Columbia; was appointed by President Clinton to serve as Deputy Attorney 
        General, the first African-American to hold that position; and was 
        appointed by President Obama to serve as Attorney General, the first 
        African-American to hold that position;
Whereas the Department of Justice has been accommodating to the Committee on 
        Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives during 
        its investigation of Operation Fast and Furious by making an 
        extraordinary offer to Chairman Issa, which he rejected, to provide 
        internal deliberative documentation from a time period well after the 
        operation ended to fully satisfy the question of how the Department's 
        knowledge evolved from February 2011 to December 2011;
Whereas the Department of Justice has provided the Committee with 1,300 pages of 
        deliberative documents around the February 4, 2011, letter that clearly 
        showed there was no intention to mislead or deceive Congress, as the 
        assurances in that letter were given by those agencies supervising the 
        Fast and Furious Operation;
Whereas the Department of Justice has provided, from more than 25 Department 
        officials, testimony, participation in interviews, and briefings for 
        Congress, including testimony by the Attorney General nine times during 
        the last 14 months, testimony by the Assistant Attorney General for the 
        Criminal Division, and testimony by the Assistant Attorney General for 
        Legislative Affairs;
Whereas the Department of Justice has provided more than 7,600 pages as part of 
        46 separate productions to the Committee, including more than 3,000 
        pages of material in response to an 8-item March 2011 subpoena and more 
        than 4,000 pages of documents in response to a 22-item October 2011 
        subpoena, and responded to dozens of other letters from Chairman Issa 
        and Senator Grassley, including requests for documents or significant 
        information; and
Whereas the Department of Justice has had many accomplishments under Attorney 
        General Holder, including protecting the American people against 
        terrorism and other threats to national security; successfully executing 
        ground-breaking counterintelligence operations; preventing United States 
        military and strategic technologies from falling into the wrong hands; 
        continuing to identify and disrupt narco-terrorist networks; and 
        protecting the American people from violent and other crimes: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) the Speaker of the House of Representatives should not 
        move to proceed to the consideration of the House Resolution 
        finding Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department 
        of Justice, in contempt of Congress pursuant to the report of 
        the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House 
        of Representatives dated June 22, 2012 (H. Rpt. 112-546); and
            (2) the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 
        House of Representatives should use its investigatory powers to 
        intercede on behalf of the American people and return to 
        addressing issues such as those which pertain to job creation, 
        improvements to education, and both enhancing and protecting 
        the health of the American people.
                                 <all>