[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 10, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

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                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2007

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2829) making 
     appropriations for financial services and general government 
     for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, a funny thing happened during a routine 
security check on classified information in the Executive Branch. It 
was blocked by the Vice President of the United States. The fact that 
the Vice President refused to comply with a security requirement 
imposed by the President is deeply disturbing. However, what is more 
chilling is the fact is that he defended his action by maintaining that 
he is not really within the Executive branch and hence, not within the 
reach of the Executive Order. In classrooms throughout our country 
students are rightly taught that the American Constitution establishes 
three branches of government--the Executive, the Legislative and the 
Judicial. Despite his best efforts, there is no ``Dick Cheney'' branch 
of government.
  So, I rise today in support of Mr. Emanuel's amendment to strip the 
funding for the Vice President's office within the executive branch 
based upon his assertion that it does not in fact exist. The Vice 
President's position that he is outside of the reach of the Executive 
Order adds another act in the Cheney Theater of the Absurd. The Vice 
President seems to believe that for every rule there is a ``Cheney 
exception''. He doesn't want to be bound by the same rules that apply 
to everyone else.
  As highlighted by the ongoing Washington Post series on the Vice 
President, his worldview has infected the policies and practices of the 
entire Bush Administration. As a Federal Appeals Court noted, the 
Administration's attempt orchestrated by Mr. Cheney to rewrite the 
Clean Air Act could be valid ``only in a Humpty-Dumpty world'' where 
everything is upside down. Nowhere has the Cheney approach had more 
impact and created more damage than in the area of national security 
policy. His blatant misrepresentation about the situation in Iraq 
before and during the war have weakened our national security and 
diminished our credibility around the world. After all it was Dick 
Cheney who said: ``Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein 
now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is 
amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and 
against us.'' This statement we now know to be wrong.
  Regarding Sadam Hussein's connections with Al Qaeda, despite repeated 
findings to the contrary by Executive branch agencies, bipartisan 
Congressional Committee and the Baker Hamilton Commission that there is 
no evidence of collaboration between Al Qaeda and Sadam Hussein, the 
Vice President continues to repeat the erroneous claim.
  Once the war started he was equally wrong in his assessment of the 
war claiming two years ago that the Iraqi insurgency was in its ``last 
throws''.
  Following a report in January of this year where the President 
finally acknowledged deep troubles in Iraq, the Vice President 
indicated that the Administration has achieved ``enormous successes'' 
in Iraq and declared that critics and the media ``are eager to write 
off this effort or declare it a failure.''
  Regarding the conditions for detaining the Bush Administration's 
``enemy combatants'' at Guantanamo Bay the Vice President said: ``They 
got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a lot of money to 
build it. They're very well treated down there. They're living in the 
tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly 
want.''
  It has been difficult to determine which of the Vice President's 
unique traits epitomizes his arrogance of power more, his belief that 
he is above the law or his complete and utter disregard for the facts. 
This week however, a more disturbing tendency has emerged, his complete 
abandonment of reality.
  Still if the Vice President insists that he is not a part of the 
Executive Branch then his office in the Executive Branch must be 
unnecessary and is no longer in need of funding.

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