[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 25, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H3101-H3102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    TOP TEN ABUSES OF THE ``SELECT INVESTIGATIVE PANEL'' REPUBLICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday 181 Democrats wrote to Speaker 
Ryan to ask the Republican Select Panel to Attack Women's Health--that 
is what we call it--to be shut down.
  From the outset, this investigation has been a political weapon to 
punish women, doctors, and scientific researchers, not an objective, 
fair-minded, or fact-based search for the truth.
  Here are the top 10 reasons to shut down this partisan panel 
immediately:
  One: The select panel is a waste of taxpayer money.
  Republicans are wasting taxpayer dollars in their chasing of 
inflammatory allegations of anti-abortion extremists.
  Three Republican-led House committees, 12 States, and one grand jury 
have already investigated charges that Planned Parenthood was selling 
fetal tissue for a profit. None found any evidence of wrongdoing.
  Two: The select panel is an attack on women's rights.
  Republicans are using the panel as part of their campaign to deny 
women access to legal reproductive health services, including 
abortions--the panel comes at a time when Republicans have voted 
repeatedly to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides health services 
to over 3 million American women and men each year--to eliminate family 
planning services, and to restrict access to abortion.
  Three: The select panel is harming scientific research.
  Republicans are using the panel to intimidate scientists into 
stopping legal fetal tissue research on treatment for cures for 
diseases and conditions that afflict millions of Americans, including 
multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and spinal cord injuries. 
Some medical research outfits have already been canceled.
  Four: The select panel is just partisan politics.
  Republicans are conducting an unfair, one-sided, and partisan 
campaign. They refuse to put indicted video maker David Daleiden under 
oath, who made those highly edited tapes against Planned Parenthood, 
while issuing subpoenas and demanding sworn testimony from law-abiding 
researchers and doctors.
  Republicans have suppressed facts that contradict their preferred 
partisan narratives. For example, they refused to hear directly from 
tissue procurement companies while they publicly accused them of 
misconduct based on misleading and inaccurate staff-created exhibits 
that lacked any sourcing or foundational information.
  Five: The select panel is a McCarthy-like witch hunt:
  Mirroring the bullying behavior of Senator Joe McCarthy, Republicans 
are demanding that universities and clinics name names of their 
researchers, graduate students, lab technicians, clinic personnel, and 
doctors. When Democrat Jerry Nadler asked Chair Blackburn to explain 
why she needs to amass this database of names, she responded: No, sir. 
I am not going to do that.
  Six: The select panel threatens innocent lives.
  Republicans are putting researchers and doctors at risk by publicly 
naming them as targets of their investigation and creating a database 
of names.
  On May 11, Republicans issued a press release that publicly named a 
physician who had already been the

[[Page H3102]]

target and the subject of violence by anti-abortion extremists. That 
physician was never contacted to voluntarily provide information before 
he received a subpoena.
  Seven: The select panel is dangerous.
  Republicans are refusing to protect confidentiality despite known 
risks and tragedies, such as the murders of three people at the 
Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood women's health clinic. That 
murderer echoed the words of our Republican chairman of the select 
committee.
  The killer used words like ``no more baby body parts.'' Even after 
they promised to protect confidentiality, the committee said: We will 
not assure that witnesses' names or any of the other names used in the 
deposition will remain private.
  Eight: The select panel is an abuse of power.
  Republicans are abusing congressional subpoena power. The 
overwhelming majority of their unilateral subpoenas--30 of 36--have 
been sent without any effort to obtain voluntary compliance.
  We should provide physicians, medical researchers, and others with an 
opportunity for them to provide information voluntarily. A subpoena 
should not be the first contact they have with Congress.
  Nine: The select panel excludes Democrats.
  Republicans have consistently refused to work with Democratic panel 
members. They have refused to discuss or to even give Democrats copies 
of their unilateral subpoenas until after they have been served, which 
is in violation of the House.
  Ten: The select panel bullies witnesses they don't like.
  It is time, Mr. Speaker, to end this panel right now.

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