[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 96 (Monday, June 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2774-S2776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Federal Bureau of Investigation

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, Congress has a constitutional 
responsibility to ensure that the executive branch executes the laws 
and uses taxpayer money that has been appropriated to do it according 
to congressional intent. Now, around here, we refer to seeing that the 
laws are faithfully executed as the constitutional responsibility of 
oversight of the Congress of the United States. In furtherance of that 
constitutional responsibility, Congress has an obligation to 
investigate the executive branch for fraud, waste, abuse, and gross 
mismanagement. I take my constitutional responsibilities of oversight 
very seriously.
  From time to time, I receive information that requires me to ask 
questions of the executive branch in efforts to better understand 
whether any wrongdoing has occurred and, if so, what remedial actions 
will be taken and employed to cure the damage done. That is what brings 
me to the floor of the Senate today, focusing on Assistant Special 
Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault at the FBI's Washington Field Office.
  Last week, while I was meeting with my constituents in Iowa, I sent a 
letter to the Justice Department and the FBI and also a letter to the 
Department of Justice's inspector general. In those letters, I provided 
evidence of extreme leftwing bias shown by Special Agent Thibault. Now, 
in his position, he is a very powerful agent within the FBI--so 
powerful that he can open and close Federal public corruption cases and 
investigations. He is a shining example, at the same time, of what is 
wrong with the FBI.
  Andrew McCarthy wrote about Mr. Thibault last week and wondered what 
the heck has happened with the FBI. This FBI agent's leftwing political 
bias was exposed by his very own LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. There, 
in those accounts, he posted highly partisan material related to his 
superiors, matters under the FBI's purview, and matters under his own 
purview. His LinkedIn network includes current and former FBI 
personnel. The general public is able to review his social media 
content, which includes his political views, his political biases, and 
objections.
  Thibault, under the title of Assistant Special Agent in Charge, 
directly posted a partisan article related to the LTG Michael Flynn 
case to his LinkedIn account. The article was a September 3, 2020, 
opinion piece from the Washington Post, entitled ``Why the Michael 
Flynn case still matters,'' which was about the ``Trump 
administration's abuses of the justice system.'' He also ``liked'' 
other politically charged articles relating to then-President Trump and 
his superior, then-Attorney General Barr.
  Thibault's public political association doesn't even end with those 
examples.
  According to his Twitter feed, which is also under his name, he 
mocked the election of one of our new colleagues, Senator Tuberville, 
and the State of Mississippi at the same time.
  He said:

       Thank God for Mississippi--state motto of Alabama.

  I am not sure exactly what that means, but it is pretty clear that he 
is making fun.

[[Page S2775]]

  When Representative Liz Cheney tweeted ``Dick Cheney says wear a 
mask,'' Thibault replied with this:

       Your dad was a disgrace.

  He recently tweeted:

       Can we give Kentucky to the Russian Federation?

  In response to a Catholic priest's tweet that was critical of 
abortion, he tweeted an anti-Catholic slur to both Catholic priests and 
then-President Trump:

       Focus on the pedophiles.

  There are other examples, but I think it is pretty clear you get the 
bias of this particular special agent. You get the picture, in other 
words.
  After my letters were made public, he reportedly then set his tweets 
to protected mode and deleted his LinkedIn profile. His social media 
activity likely violated several Federal regulations and Department 
guidelines. The guidelines are designed to prevent political bias from 
infecting FBI matters. Such restrictions on political activity are 
heightened by senior FBI officials like Thibault because of the risk of 
improper influence on investigative matters.
  If he projects this type of political sentiment in public, using his 
name and title, there is absolutely no telling what he is doing within 
the privacy of his office and in front of subordinates.
  The fact that this FBI agent has the power to open and close 
investigations, particularly into political figures--Republican and/or 
Democrat--is cause for serious concern. His actions present a grave 
risk of political infection and bias in his official decision-making 
process.
  Let me ask: What have the Justice Department and FBI done to oversee 
his work behavior?
  Let me ask: How many investigations have been infected by this 
political bias by this special agent?
  I fear, for many years, he has been able to do whatever he has wanted 
to do. Accordingly, such conduct unquestionably undermines both the 
Justice Department and the FBI because, at a minimum, it creates the 
perception of the unequal application of the law. At the maximum, his 
political bias has materially affected investigative matters that he 
has been a part of.
  This is why the American people have lost confidence in the Justice 
Department and the FBI to do the jobs that those two Agencies are 
assigned to do under our law. Political considerations have infected 
these Agencies, and the cost is a loss of faith in the very 
institutions that depend on the American people's trust for the 
credibility of these Agencies.
  My press release last week listed a phone number and an email address 
for the Justice Department and FBI whistleblowers to contact my office 
if they know some of these similar things that we need to know. Since 
then, I have had whistleblowers reach out to me about Thibault and 
others. I will have more to say on that matter, in the coming weeks, to 
my colleagues here in the Senate.
  I urge anyone who is willing to speak to government waste, fraud, 
abuse, and gross mismanagement to contact me. And, of course, I 
strongly urge the Justice Department and the FBI to clean house without 
hesitation.

  Transparency brings accountability, and my future investigative 
actions in this space will do exactly that. I am asking my colleagues 
to stay tuned.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                    50-Year Anniversary of Title IX

  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, just imagine: It is a Tuesday night 
in October. The shuffle of shoes screech across the waxed court, the 
buzzer sounds, and the crowd erupts in cheers as the home team scores 
the winning point. Clinching the first-place title, the home team 
gathers at center court, each player grinning from ear to ear. The 
excitement is tangible. It was a hard-fought season and a well-earned 
first-place title. The trophy is presented, pictures are taken, and 
team members high-five each other as fans charge the court to 
congratulate the winning team.
  What I just described are the final seconds of a high school girls' 
basketball game. Those who have witnessed a buzzer-beater win know 
there is nothing like it. For the players, the fans, the parents, and 
all involved, it is a prized moment and a memory that will never be 
forgotten. But it is not just a memory; it is a valuable learning 
experience.
  Over the span of a year, teammates dedicate hundreds of hours of 
late-night and early morning practices. They overcome conflicts. They 
work together. They practice self-discipline. They perfect their craft. 
And they knew, if they gave it all, they would have a chance to be 
victorious with all this hard work and effort.
  I saw these learning experiences unfold time and time again 
throughout my 40-year career as a coach, educator, and mentor. A great 
deal has changed in the world of women's athletics since I began my 
career coaching high school girls' basketball almost 40 years ago. What 
an experience.
  Almost 50 years ago, female athletics received less than 2 percent of 
college athletic budgets, and athletic scholarships for women were 
virtually nonexistent. Only 1 in 27 girls participated in 
intercollegiate sports in the United States 50 years ago--1 in 27.
  Since the 1970s, female participation in sports at the collegiate 
level has risen by more than 600 percent, and today 43 percent of the 
high school girls whom we have in school today participate in sports, 
up from 5 percent 50 years ago.
  These strides in women's athletics did not just happen by 
circumstance. They are the result of title IX protections passed by 
Congress in 1972 in this very room where we are today. Title IX 
provided females a long-denied platform that had always been afforded 
to males only. It ensured female athletes had the same access to 
funding, facilities, and athletic scholarships. That was title IX.
  It is an unquestionable truth that biological males have a 
physiological advantage over females. Title IX acknowledged that truth 
for the benefit of women's athletics. To break it down even more, one 
study states: On average, males have 40 to 50 percent greater upper 
limb strength, 20 to 40 percent greater lower limb strength, and an 
average of 12 pounds more skeletal muscle mass than age-matched females 
at any given body weight.
  Title IX sent an incredible--incredible--message to female athletes 
across the Nation. That message was: You can compete; you can win; and 
you will be afforded a fair and level playing field to do so. Because 
of these reasons, decades later, we know title IX has been a monumental 
success for female athletes across this country.
  As the 50th anniversary of title IX approaches at the end of this 
month, we should be celebrating female athletes who were given the 
opportunity to win first place, to learn the life lessons sports 
teaches each individual, and to overcome obstacles and reach their God-
given potential. We should be asking ourselves how we can preserve 
title IX so female athletes 50 years from now can experience the same 
euphoric feeling of hard work and hard-earned victory.
  But, unfortunately, with the Biden administration's proposal, in the 
next few weeks, we will lose title IX protections for female athletes 
as we know it. Later this month, it is expected that President Biden's 
Department of Education will publish a proposed rule to change title IX 
to align more with the administration's progressive agenda.
  These proposed changes would require schools to allow biological 
males to compete in women's sports. It would take a wrecking ball to 
five decades of title IX success and tilt what was a level playing 
field to the far left. With the Biden administration's proposal, female 
athletes will lose. We cannot allow title IX's protections for female 
athletes to be eroded. It has been too much of a success.
  I plan to continue leading efforts against this misguided policy to 
ensure no Federal action will negatively impact female athletes. 
Recently, I have spoken with numerous female athletes

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who were able to compete and win because of title IX. Additionally, I 
introduced an amendment to prohibit Federal funding to schools that 
allow biological males to compete in women's sports.
  I have also repeatedly called for the Senate to pass the Protection 
of Women and Girls in Sports Act, legislation I helped introduce that 
would ensure the definition of ``sex'' in title IX is based on ``solely 
a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth'' and prohibit 
Federal funding to institutions that do not uphold that definition.
  Just last week, I sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education 
Secretary Cardona, warning the administration to rethink this rule 
change. The Biden administration's title IX rule flies in the face of 
the so-called science that Democrats are quick to pledge their 
allegiance to by ignoring the scientific differences in biological 
makeup of male and female athletes. Apparently, science only holds 
water when it conforms to the Democrats' partisan agenda.
  Allowing biological males to compete in women's sports will set 
women's rights back 50 years to a time before title IX. It will 
discourage young girls from entering the court, jumping in the pool, 
walking on the field because they will know they will have to compete 
with the deck stacked against them; they can only hope to win second 
place, at best.
  So the bottom line is that there is really no pregame speech or 
halftime talk you can give to a woman or a girl who feels like they 
aren't competing on a fair playing field, like 50 years ago. With this 
proposed rule, girls will be playing for second.
  The Biden administration should do the right thing and rethink their 
decision that would destroy female athletics as we know it today.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.