[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 100 (Friday, June 29, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1199-E1200]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




RECOMMENDING THAT ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER BE FOUND IN CONTEMPT OF 
                                CONGRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. YVETTE D. CLARKE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2012

  Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am disheartened by the 
Republican majority's decision to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in 
contempt and am deeply concerned with the partisan basis of this 
investigation.
  For the first time in the history of the United States House of 
Representatives, a Cabinet official, in this case an Attorney General 
has been held in contempt of Congress--simply for doing his job. This 
act is a deliberate misuse of power which I hope will be challenged.
  In the previous sessions of Congress, the Oversight Committee has 
been a watchdog, ensuring that our Government works as effectively and 
efficiently as possible. Whether it was investigating our government's 
failed response to Hurricane Katrina, or investigating our government's 
role in the financial crisis, the Oversight Committee has been at the 
forefront of issues that concern the American people.
  However, during this 112th Congress, the Oversight Committee's 
leadership has pressed for an investigation, requesting irrelevant 
documents, and narrowly focusing his inquiries on the current Attorney 
General's continuation of a program established long before his tenure.
  Attorney General Holder has cooperated with the Oversight Committee's 
investigation, providing thousands of documents on the operation. 
However, after finding no wrongdoing, the Oversight Committee's 
leadership remains

[[Page E1200]]

unsatisfied with its investigation into the Department of Justice.
  This political showboating has forced the President to get involved 
and invoke executive privilege, an implied Constitutional power given 
to the President, because the Framers deemed it important that the 
President and his Officers were given the freedom to act candidly under 
certain circumstances, primarily with regard to foreign policy and 
national security.
  Our system of government depends on a separation of powers that 
allows Congress to enact laws and the President to execute these laws, 
as mandated by Article 1 and Article 2 of the Constitution. The 
Republican majority in the House of Representatives has decided to 
interfere with the authority of the Attorney General, who was appointed 
by President Obama and confirmed by a bipartisan majority of the 
Senate, to implement policy.
  In addition, the vote to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt 
indicates that many in Congress are more interested in preventing 
President Obama and the officials he has appointed from fulfilling 
their duties than in talking about the issues that matter to the 
American people.
  We are not debating proposals to create jobs today. We are not 
debating immigration reform. Why? Republicans have decided to 
investigate the internal deliberations of the Department of Justice, a 
15-month investigation that has not revealed any misconduct--an 
investigation by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform with 
which Attorney General Holder has cooperated. This vote creates a 
dangerous precedent for the future.
  This is not the time for politics or games. We have all taken an oath 
to serve the American people and today's vote is a disservice to the 
women and men whose interests have been repeatedly ignored. I am 
certain that the millions of Americans, who want to restore our 
economic prosperity, share my disappointment.
  With this in mind, I urge all of my colleagues, on both sides of the 
aisle, to walk out in opposition to or oppose the vote to hold Attorney 
General Eric Holder in contempt. Cooperation between Congress and the 
Executive Branch, as a matter of national security, should not be a 
partisan issue.

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