[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 126 (Thursday, July 26, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7711-H7713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CONGRESS FOR DUMMIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gallego) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, despite their united control of Congress, 
my Republican friends seem to think there is nothing they can do when 
Donald Trump acts in a matter that is contrary to our laws and our 
values. Here is what they have been saying:
  Congressman Ryan Costello: There is nothing we can do to stop the 
President, let alone this President, from saying what he thinks or what 
he wants to say.
  Speaker Ryan on immigration policy: The last thing I want to do is 
bring a bill out here that I know the President won't support.
  Lastly, again, Speaker Ryan: Every morning I wake up in my office and

[[Page H7712]]

scroll through Twitter to see which tweets that I will have to pretend 
I didn't see later on.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GALLEGO. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, after reading these quotes, 
it seems like one thing is pretty clear--our colleagues across the 
aisle have forgotten how Congress works.
  Mr. GALLEGO. But, Ted, did you know that there are actually concrete 
steps the majority party can take to exercise its power over the 
administration and hold it accountable for its actions?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. I did know that. It is called 
congressional oversight authority.
  Mr. GALLEGO. That is right. When the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 
1787, it included checks and balances that allow the legislative 
branch, us, to oversee the executive branch, the President. It is part 
of what makes our Nation great.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. But Congressman Gallego, why haven't we 
seen more of these checks and balances in action?
  Mr. GALLEGO. That is a great question. Maybe our friends in the 
majority have forgotten how to use their power.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. That is why we would like to enter into 
the Record Article I of the United States Constitution.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Great idea. So, let's start with a new class that we 
call Welcome to Congressional Oversight 101 or, as I like to call it, 
Congress for Dummies.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Okay, so lesson one, Congress can 
actually pass legislation.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Isn't that hard?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. No. You just need 218 votes in the House 
and 51 votes in the Senate.
  Mr. GALLEGO. What are some of the issues that Congress can pass 
legislation on, Ted?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Almost anything. As Speaker Ryan has 
stated, he thinks we need legislation to prevent the separation of 
families, of kids who were ripped away from their parents by the Trump 
administration. We agree. Democrats have introduced the Keep Families 
Together Act. That has not gotten a vote, and we think we should have a 
vote on that bill.
  In addition, there are numerous pieces of legislation that can make 
our economy better, that can help our healthcare, make sure that we 
deal with the opioid crisis, and numerous pieces of legislation such as 
investing in infrastructure, none of which has gotten a vote so far.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Ted, for example, could we actually be protecting the 
Special Counsel from being fired by the President?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. We could do that, too.
  There are several pieces of legislation as well that the Republican-
controlled majority will not let us have a vote on.
  Mr. GALLEGO. I believe there is an actual bill that has been 
introduced, specifically, that Ryan could actually bring to the floor, 
to protect the Special Counsel and not just talk about protecting the 
Special Counsel.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Exactly. It is called the Special Counsel 
Independence and Integrity Act, which has both Republican and 
Democratic support in both the House and the Senate.
  Mr. GALLEGO. So why hasn't Speaker Ryan or the Republicans actually 
passed this bill?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. That is a great question. That is why we 
are here today, to explain to America that the majority is recessing 
for 5 weeks without completing its work on behalf of the American 
people. That is shameful.
  Mr. GALLEGO. We certainly have brought this up, and we will continue 
to be pushing this bill until it comes to the floor.
  Let's move on to lesson 2.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Another thing Congress gets to do is, we 
get to hold hearings. The Judiciary Committee, on which I sit, has not 
held a single hearing on any of the issues that are important to 
Americans. Instead, we have done two hearings on whether groups like 
Diamond and Silk get enough Facebook likes. We also held a hearing on--
are you ready for this? Hillary Clinton's emails.
  Mr. GALLEGO. It is important to remember the congressional committee 
chairman gets to decide what topics they hold hearings on.
  So are you telling me the Judiciary Committee chairman is more 
interested in Hillary Clinton's emails from 2015 or maybe 2016 than 
currently dealing with attacks on our democracy from Russia, from 
Putin, or trying to figure out how we have basically abandoned and 
orphaned 2,600 families at the border?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. It sure seems that way.
  Mr. GALLEGO. So let's move on.
  What is the third thing that we could be doing as Congress to 
actually put the executive in check, Ted?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. The other thing the Constitution gives us 
a right to do is to issue subpoenas.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Subpoenas. What is a subpoena?
  You are a former Federal prosecutor. Please enlighten us, since 
somehow this Congress has forgotten that we could do subpoenas.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. It is very simple. It is a document that 
will require a witness to show up before a congressional hearing or to 
produce documents to congressional investigators.
  Mr. GALLEGO. I don't know if you know this, Ted, but there is this 
neat little House rule called House rule XI, clause 2. Have you heard 
of this?
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. It sounds a little complicated.
  Can you explain how it works?
  Mr. GALLEGO. It is not. It is very simple. This clause allows House 
committees to issue subpoenas, which are legal documents that force 
somebody to do something, in this case either testify or give Congress 
documents.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Ah, so what that means is Congress could 
actually subpoena the translator who was in the private 2-hour meeting 
between the President and Vladimir Putin of which Americans have no 
idea what was discussed.
  Let me give an example of why that is bad for our country. Recently, 
the Russians attacked a U.S. general. Congressman Gallego and I both 
served on Active Duty in the military, and they are criticizing this 
U.S. general for allegedly not doing something that was discussed in 
that private, 2-hour meeting. It is certainly possible the U.S. general 
was wrong. It is also possible the Russians were making stuff up. We 
have no idea.
  Congress needs to exercise its proper oversight authority so we 
understand what is happening between the United States and the Kremlin.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Or we could do something really crazy and subpoena all 
the many administration officials and department heads who have gotten 
rich and richer by exploiting their public offices for private gain.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. I agree with you.
  Why don't we now move on to our last lesson.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Lesson number 4, requesting investigations.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Okay. So just to recap, Congress can pass 
legislation, we can hold hearings, we can issue subpoenas, and now we 
can request investigations.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Every committee has jurisdiction over a set of agencies. 
Those agencies each have something called an inspector general. These 
officials are responsible for investigating waste, fraud, and abuse at 
each agency and reporting back to Congress.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. So what can Congress do with these 
inspectors general?
  Mr. GALLEGO. Well, Ted, Congress can actually request an inspector 
general report.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. Ah, so, for example, we request an 
inspector general to look into Wilbur Ross's alleged insider trading. 
We can request an inspector general to look at all their waste, fraud, 
and abuse of various Cabinet officials in Trump's Cabinet of corruption 
where they are spending large amounts of taxpayers' money on luxury 
private travel.
  We could do that, right?
  Mr. GALLEGO. Exactly.
  Mr. TED LIEU of California. But, again, let me just remind people 
that my committee that I sit on, the House Judiciary Committee, 
actually did exercise that power, and they used that

[[Page H7713]]

power to look into, again, ready for this? Hillary Clinton's emails.
  The last time I checked, Hillary Clinton is not President, nor is she 
running for President. It is another example of the Republicans in this 
House who are focused on the past. Democrats are focused on the future. 
We want to reduce healthcare costs, address the opioid epidemic, invest 
in infrastructure to increase wages, and get corruption out of 
government.
  Mr. GALLEGO. So what have we learned today?
  Unfortunately, we have learned that our Republican colleagues are 
unwilling or afraid, either-or, to use their power vested in them by 
the Constitution on behalf of the American people to keep the executive 
in check.

                              {time}  1245

  Mr. TED LIEU of California. It is really simple. At the end of the 
day, Congress should not be going on recess before we do the important 
work on behalf of the American people.
  Mr. GALLEGO. It is shameful that we are going on recess right now 
while we know that there are foreign adversaries targeting our 
elections, targeting our elected officials; we have a President that we 
cannot get straight answers out of, and this Republican-led Congress 
refuses to act.
  So maybe it is time to turn control of this Chamber over to Members 
who are willing to hold this administration accountable.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind Members to direct all 
remarks to the Chair and to formally yield and reclaim time when under 
recognition.

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