[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 517 Laid on Table in House (LTH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 517

           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 13, 2014

 Mr. Kildee submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the 
                                 table

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas on March 5, 2014, during a hearing before the House Committee on 
        Oversight and Government Reform, Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa gave 
        a statement and then posed ten questions to former Internal Revenue 
        Service official Lois Lerner, who stated that she was invoking her Fifth 
        Amendment right not to testify;
Whereas the Committee's Ranking Member, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, clearly sought 
        recognition to take his turn for questions under Committee and House 
        Rules;
Whereas, Chairman Issa then unilaterally adjourned the hearing and refused to 
        allow him to make any statement or ask any questions;
Whereas Ranking Member Cummings protested immediately, stating: ``Mr. Chairman, 
        you cannot run a Committee like this. You just cannot do this. This is, 
        we are better than that as a country, we are better than that as a 
        Committee.''
Whereas, Chairman Issa then returned and allowed Ranking Member Cummings to 
        begin his statement, but when it became clear that Chairman Issa did not 
        want to hear what Ranking Member Cummings was saying, turned off Ranking 
        Member Cummings' microphone, ordered Republican staff to ``close it 
        down,'' and repeatedly signaled to end the hearing with his hand across 
        his neck;
Whereas Ranking Member Cummings objected again, stating: ``You cannot have a 
        one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with 
        that.'';
Whereas Chairman Issa made a statement of his own and posed questions during the 
        hearing, but refused to allow other members of the Committee, and in 
        particular the Ranking Member who had sought recognition, to make 
        statements under the five-minute rule in violation of House Rule XI;
Whereas Chairman Issa instructed the microphones be turned off and adjourned the 
        hearing without a vote or a unanimous consent agreement in violation of 
        Rule XVI because he did not want to permit Ranking Member Cummings to 
        speak;
Whereas Chairman Issa's abusive behavior on March 5 is part of a continuing 
        pattern in which he has routinely excluded members of the Committee from 
        investigative meetings, has turned off Members' microphones while they 
        were questioning a witness, attempted to prevent witnesses from 
        answering questions, and has provided information to the press before 
        sharing it with Committee members;
Whereas on July 18, 2003, former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Bill 
        Thomas (R-CA) asked the United States Capitol Police to remove minority 
        members of the Committee from the library where they were having a 
        discussion about a pending committee mark up, and subsequently came to 
        the well of the U.S. House of Representatives to publicly apologize for 
        his belligerent behavior;
Whereas Chairman Issa has violated Clause 1 of Rule XXIII of the Code of 
        Official Conduct which states that ``A Member, Delegate, Resident 
        Commissioner, officer or employee of the House shall behave at all times 
        in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House'': Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives strongly condemns the 
offensive and disrespectful manner in which Chairman Darrell E. Issa 
conducted the hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform on March 5, 2014, and requires that he come to the 
well of the House to issue a public apology to Members of the House.
                                 <all>