[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 16, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H6847-H6849]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RAISING A QUESTION OF THE PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(a)(1) of rule 
IX, I hereby notify the House of my intention to offer a resolution as 
a question of the privileges of the House. The form of the resolution 
is as follows:

                               H. Res. --

       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, ``Madam 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 when asked in a press conference held June 4, 2009, 
     ``Madam Speaker, are you still receiving intelligence 
     briefings?'' Speaker Pelosi responded by saying, ``Yes, I am; 
     yes, I am.'';
       Whereas a June 5, 2009 article on Human Events.com 
     entitled, ``Pelosi Still Receives CIA Briefings, But Won't 
     Say If They're Truthful'' stated, ``She refused to answer 
     when asked whether or not she believes intelligence 
     professionals are still lying to her.'';
       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.

                              {time}  1400

  Mr. Speaker, that is the resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair designates now as the time that 
the gentleman may offer his resolution.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I therefore offer the resolution. I 
assume it has to be read, Mr. Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the resolution.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H. Res. --

       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 when asked in a press conference held June 4, 2009, 
     ``Madame Speaker, are you still receiving intelligence 
     briefings?'' Speaker Pelosi responded by saying, ``Yes, I am; 
     yes, I am.''; Whereas a June 5, 2009 article on. Human 
     Events.com entitled, ``Pelosi Still Receives CIA. Briefings, 
     But Won't Say If They're Truthful'' stated, ``She refused to 
     answer when asked whether or not she believes intelligence 
     professionals are still lying to her.'';
       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.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman from Utah wish to present 
argument on why the resolution is privileged for immediate 
consideration?
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Yes, I do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[[Page H6848]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is recognized.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. This is very similar--it is not exactly the same, 
but it is similar to a resolution we presented a few weeks ago. It is 
presented again for one simple reason. The reason that this is before 
here is still that there is no cloture on this particular issue.
  In ``A Man for All Seasons,'' Sir Thomas More may have used silence 
as his legal argument that silence denotes consent; but in a political 
setting as we are here, silence is not a solution. In an era in which 
perception is the same thing as reality, silence does not solve the 
problem, and indeed, harms are still there.
  If an agency of government intentionally misleads Congress--and the 
CIA has denied they did that. If they intentionally mislead Congress or 
a Member, an important or a significant Member of Congress, it creates 
a problem for the integrity of the House as a whole.
  If the data we are to receive is in question, then the solutions and 
the arguments we derive are equally in question, and that becomes an 
untenable decision. All of our decisions, therefore, become suspect. 
There is only one solution to this, and it is the same solution that we 
have said before:
  If we don't want this issue to simply be subject to political 
maneuverings, establish a bipartisan committee--two Republicans, two 
Democrats. Make that committee a subset of the Permanent Select 
Committee on Intelligence, so they understand the verbiage, so they 
understand the questions, so they don't have to have a lot of time to 
be brought up to speed.
  If you have that kind of committee, their report will, by the very 
nature of the makeup of that committee, not be subject to political 
spin, and we may be able to move on. That's the important part. It is 
the integrity of the House that is in question here, and that needs to 
be answered so decisions of this House will be considered without any 
other kind of question or implication.
  Now, as we are starting the appropriations process, it becomes an 
ideal time in which any kind of solution we may wish to impose on this 
particular situation should be before the House and should be done.
  Mr. Speaker, I do this as a former speaker in Utah where several 
times you had to stand up to defend the integrity of the institution. 
This is about the integrity of the institution, to make sure we were 
not intentionally misled by an agency of government.
  I yield back.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair is prepared to rule.
  The resolution proposes to direct a select subcommittee of the 
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ``to review and verify the 
accuracy of'' certain public statements of the Speaker concerning 
communications to the Congress from an element of the executive branch.
  Such a review necessarily would include an evaluation not only of the 
statements of the Speaker but also of the executive communications to 
which those statements related. Thus, the review necessarily would 
involve an evaluation of the oversight regime that formed the context 
for those communications as well. In reviewing and verifying the 
accuracy of ``the aforementioned public statements,'' the select 
subcommittee would be assessing not only the probity of the Speaker's 
actions but also the probity of the actions of executive branch 
officials.
  On these premises, the Chair finds that the instant resolution is not 
materially different from House Resolution 470, which was held on May 
21, 2009, not to present a question of privilege. The Chair therefore 
holds that the resolution is not privileged under rule IX. Instead, as 
was the case with House Resolution 470, the instant resolution may be 
submitted through the hopper.
  The gentleman from Utah is recognized.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I appeal the ruling of the Chair.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is, Shall the decision of the 
Chair stand as the judgment of the House?


                            Motion to Table

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move to table the appeal of 
the ruling of the Chair.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on the motion to table will be followed by 5-minute votes 
on motions to suspend with respect to H.R. 2247 and H.R. 403.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 247, 
nays 171, not voting 15, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 342]

                               YEAS--247

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Adler (NJ)
     Altmire
     Andrews
     Arcuri
     Baca
     Baird
     Baldwin
     Barrow
     Bean
     Becerra
     Berman
     Berry
     Bishop (GA)
     Bishop (NY)
     Blumenauer
     Boccieri
     Boren
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brady (PA)
     Braley (IA)
     Bright
     Brown, Corrine
     Butterfield
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardoza
     Carnahan
     Carney
     Carson (IN)
     Castor (FL)
     Chandler
     Childers
     Clarke
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Cohen
     Conyers
     Cooper
     Costa
     Courtney
     Crowley
     Cuellar
     Cummings
     Dahlkemper
     Davis (AL)
     Davis (CA)
     Davis (IL)
     Davis (TN)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Donnelly (IN)
     Doyle
     Driehaus
     Edwards (MD)
     Edwards (TX)
     Ellison
     Ellsworth
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Farr
     Fattah
     Filner
     Foster
     Frank (MA)
     Fudge
     Giffords
     Gonzalez
     Gordon (TN)
     Grayson
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Griffith
     Grijalva
     Hall (NY)
     Halvorson
     Hare
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Heinrich
     Herseth Sandlin
     Higgins
     Hill
     Himes
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hirono
     Hodes
     Holden
     Holt
     Honda
     Hoyer
     Inslee
     Israel
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Jones
     Kagen
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick (MI)
     Kilroy
     Kind
     Kirkpatrick (AZ)
     Kissell
     Klein (FL)
     Kosmas
     Kratovil
     Kucinich
     Langevin
     Larsen (WA)
     Lee (CA)
     Levin
     Lipinski
     Loebsack
     Lofgren, Zoe
     Lowey
     Lujan
     Lynch
     Maffei
     Maloney
     Markey (CO)
     Markey (MA)
     Marshall
     Massa
     Matheson
     Matsui
     McCarthy (NY)
     McCollum
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McIntyre
     McMahon
     McNerney
     Meek (FL)
     Meeks (NY)
     Melancon
     Michaud
     Miller (NC)
     Miller, George
     Minnick
     Mitchell
     Mollohan
     Moore (KS)
     Moran (VA)
     Murphy (CT)
     Murphy (NY)
     Murphy, Patrick
     Murtha
     Nadler (NY)
     Napolitano
     Neal (MA)
     Nye
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor (AZ)
     Paul
     Payne
     Perlmutter
     Perriello
     Peters
     Peterson
     Pingree (ME)
     Polis (CO)
     Pomeroy
     Price (NC)
     Quigley
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Reyes
     Richardson
     Rodriguez
     Ross
     Rothman (NJ)
     Roybal-Allard
     Ruppersberger
     Rush
     Ryan (OH)
     Salazar
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Sarbanes
     Schakowsky
     Schauer
     Schiff
     Schrader
     Schwartz
     Scott (GA)
     Scott (VA)
     Serrano
     Sestak
     Shea-Porter
     Sherman
     Shuler
     Sires
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (WA)
     Snyder
     Space
     Speier
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stupak
     Sutton
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor
     Teague
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Tierney
     Titus
     Tonko
     Towns
     Tsongas
     Van Hollen
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Walz
     Wasserman Schultz
     Waters
     Watson
     Watt
     Waxman
     Weiner
     Welch
     Wexler
     Woolsey
     Wu
     Yarmuth

                               NAYS--171

     Aderholt
     Akin
     Austria
     Bachmann
     Bachus
     Barrett (SC)
     Bartlett
     Barton (TX)
     Biggert
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (UT)
     Blackburn
     Boehner
     Bono Mack
     Boozman
     Boustany
     Brady (TX)
     Broun (GA)
     Brown (SC)
     Brown-Waite, Ginny
     Buchanan
     Burgess
     Burton (IN)
     Buyer
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Cantor
     Cao
     Capito
     Carter
     Cassidy
     Castle
     Chaffetz
     Coble
     Coffman (CO)
     Cole
     Conaway
     Crenshaw
     Culberson
     Davis (KY)
     Deal (GA)
     Dent
     Diaz-Balart, L.
     Diaz-Balart, M.
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Ehlers
     Emerson
     Fallin
     Flake
     Fleming
     Forbes
     Fortenberry
     Foxx
     Franks (AZ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Garrett (NJ)
     Gerlach
     Gingrey (GA)
     Gohmert
     Goodlatte
     Granger
     Graves
     Guthrie
     Hall (TX)
     Harper
     Hastings (WA)
     Heller
     Hensarling
     Herger
     Hoekstra
     Hunter
     Inglis
     Issa
     Jenkins
     Johnson (IL)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jordan (OH)
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Kirk
     Kline (MN)
     Lamborn
     Lance
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Latta
     Lee (NY)
     Lewis (CA)
     Linder
     LoBiondo
     Lucas
     Luetkemeyer
     Lummis
     Lungren, Daniel E.
     Mack
     Manzullo
     Marchant
     McCarthy (CA)
     McCaul
     McClintock
     McCotter
     McHenry
     McHugh
     McKeon
     McMorris Rodgers
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Miller, Gary

[[Page H6849]]


     Moran (KS)
     Murphy, Tim
     Myrick
     Neugebauer
     Nunes
     Olson
     Paulsen
     Pence
     Petri
     Pitts
     Platts
     Poe (TX)
     Posey
     Price (GA)
     Putnam
     Radanovich
     Rehberg
     Reichert
     Roe (TN)
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rogers (MI)
     Rohrabacher
     Rooney
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roskam
     Royce
     Ryan (WI)
     Scalise
     Schmidt
     Schock
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Souder
     Stearns
     Terry
     Thompson (PA)
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Tiberi
     Turner
     Upton
     Walden
     Wamp
     Westmoreland
     Whitfield
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman
     Wolf
     Young (AK)

                             NOT VOTING--15

     Alexander
     Berkley
     Blunt
     Bonner
     Connolly (VA)
     Costello
     Gutierrez
     Kennedy
     Larson (CT)
     Lewis (GA)
     Moore (WI)
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sullivan
     Wilson (OH)
     Young (FL)

                              {time}  1427

  So the motion to table was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

                          ____________________