[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 24, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4891-H4894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ESTABLISHING THE TASK FORCE ON THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF DONALD J. 
                                 TRUMP

  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
resolution (H. Res. 1367) establishing the Task Force on the Attempted 
Assassination of Donald J. Trump, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 1367

       Resolved,

     SECTION 1. ESTABLISHMENT; COMPOSITION.

       (a) Establishment.--There is hereby established in the 
     House of Representatives the Task Force on the Attempted 
     Assassination of Donald J. Trump (hereafter in this 
     resolution referred to as the ``Task Force'').
       (b) Composition.--
       (1) In general.--The Task Force shall be composed of not 
     more than 13 Members, Delegates, or the Resident Commissioner 
     appointed by the Speaker, not more than 6 of whom shall be 
     appointed after consultation with the minority leader. The 
     Speaker shall designate one member of the Task Force as its 
     chair. A vacancy in the membership of the Task Force shall be 
     filled in the same manner as the original appointment.
       (2) Ex officio members.--The Speaker and the minority 
     leader shall be ex officio members of the Task Force but 
     shall have no vote in the Task Force and may not be counted 
     for purposes of determining a quorum.
       (3) Designation of leadership staff member.--The Speaker 
     and the minority leader each may designate a leadership staff 
     member to assist in their capacity as ex officio members, 
     with the same access to Task Force meetings, hearings, 
     briefings, and materials as employees of the Task Force and 
     subject to the same security clearance and confidentiality 
     requirements as employees of the Task Force, or as required 
     to conduct the functions of the Task Force.

     SEC. 2. JURISDICTION; FUNCTIONS.

       (a) Functions.--The functions of the Task Force shall be 
     to--
       (1) investigate and fully examine all actions by any 
     agency, Department, officer, or employee of the Federal 
     Government, as well as State and local law enforcement or any 
     other State or local government or private entities or 
     individuals, related to the attempted assassination of Donald 
     J. Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania; and
       (2) issue a final report of its findings to the House not 
     later than December 13, 2024, including any recommendations 
     for legislative reforms necessary to prevent future security 
     lapses.
       (b) Interim Reports.--In addition to any final report 
     addressing the matters described in subsection (a), the Task 
     Force may issue such interim reports as it deems necessary.
       (c) Unclassified Form.--Any report issued by the Task Force 
     shall be issued in unclassified form but may include a 
     classified annex, a law enforcement-sensitive annex, or both.

     SEC. 3. PROCEDURE.

       (a) Notwithstanding clause 3(m) of rule X of the Rules of 
     the House of Representatives, the Task Force is authorized to 
     study the sources and methods of entities described in clause 
     11(b)(1)(A) of rule X insofar as such study is related to the 
     matters described in section 2.
       (b) Clause 11(b)(4), clause 11(e), and the first sentence 
     of clause 11(f) of rule X shall apply to the Task Force.
       (c) Except as specified in subsection (d), the Task Force 
     shall have the authorities and responsibilities of, and shall 
     be subject to the same limitations and restrictions as, a 
     standing committee of the House, and shall be deemed a 
     committee of the House for all purposes of law or rule.
       (d)(1) Rules X and XI shall apply to the Task Force where 
     not inconsistent with this subsection.
       (2) Service on the Task Force shall not count against the 
     limitations in clause 5(b)(2) of rule X.
       (3) Clause 2(a) of rule XI shall not apply to the Task 
     Force.
       (4) Clause 2(g)(2)(D) of rule XI shall apply to the Task 
     Force in the same manner as it applies to the Permanent 
     Select Committee on Intelligence.
       (5) Pursuant to clause 2(h) of rule XI, two members of the 
     Task Force shall constitute a quorum for taking testimony or 
     receiving evidence and one-third of the members of the Task 
     Force shall constitute a quorum for taking any action other 
     than one for which the presence of a majority of the Task 
     Force is required.
       (6) The chair of the Task Force, upon consultation with the 
     ranking minority member, may authorize and issue subpoenas 
     pursuant to clause 2(m) of rule XI in the investigation and 
     study conducted pursuant to section 2, including for the 
     purpose of taking depositions.
       (7)(A) The chair of the Task Force, upon consultation with 
     the ranking minority member, may order the taking of 
     depositions, including pursuant to subpoena, by a member or 
     counsel of the Task Force, in the same manner as a standing 
     committee pursuant to section 3(k)(1) of House Resolution 5, 
     One Hundred Eighteenth Congress.
       (B) Depositions taken under the authority prescribed in 
     this paragraph shall be governed by the procedures submitted 
     by the chair of the Committee on Rules for printing in the 
     Congressional Record on January 10, 2023.
       (8) Subpoenas authorized pursuant to this resolution may be 
     signed by the chair of the Task Force or a designee.
       (9) The chair of the Task Force may, after consultation 
     with the ranking minority member, recognize--
       (A) members of the Task Force to question a witness for 
     periods longer than five minutes as though pursuant to clause 
     2(j)(2)(B) of rule XI; and
       (B) staff of the Task Force to question a witness as though 
     pursuant to clause 2(j)(2)(C) of rule XI.
       (10) The chair of the Task Force may postpone further 
     proceedings when a record vote is ordered on questions 
     referenced in clause 2(h)(4) of rule XI, and may resume 
     proceedings on such postponed questions at any time after 
     reasonable notice. Notwithstanding any intervening order for 
     the previous question, an underlying proposition shall remain 
     subject to further debate or amendment to the same extent as 
     when the question was postponed.
       (11) The provisions of paragraphs (f)(1) through (f)(12) of 
     clause 4 of rule XI shall apply to the Task Force.

     SEC. 4. RECORDS; STAFF; TRAVEL; FUNDING.

       (a) Any committee of the House of Representatives having 
     custody of records in any form relating to the matters 
     described in section 2 shall transfer such records to the 
     Task Force within 7 days of the adoption of this resolution. 
     Such records shall become the records of the Task Force.
       (b) The appointment and the compensation of staff for the 
     Task Force shall be subject to regulations issued by the 
     Committee on House Administration.
       (c)(1) Staff of employing entities of the House or a joint 
     committee may be detailed to the Task Force to carry out this 
     resolution and shall be deemed to be staff of the Task Force.
       (2) The Task Force may request the head of any Federal 
     agency to detail, on a nonreimbursable basis, any of the 
     personnel of the agency to the Task Force.
       (d) Section 202(i) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 
     1946 (2 U.S.C. 4301(i)) shall apply with respect to the Task 
     Force in the same manner as such section applies with respect 
     to a standing committee, except that

[[Page H4892]]

     the selection of any consultant or organization under such 
     section shall be subject to approval by the Speaker.
       (e) There shall be paid out of the applicable accounts of 
     the House of Representatives such sums as may be necessary 
     for the expenses of the Task Force. Such payments shall be 
     made on vouchers signed by the chair of the Task Force and 
     approved in the manner directed by the Committee on House 
     Administration. Amounts made available under this subsection 
     shall be expended in accordance with regulations prescribed 
     by the Committee on House Administration.

     SEC. 5. TERMINATION; DISPOSITION OF RECORDS.

       (a) Termination.--The Task Force shall terminate 10 days 
     after filing the final report required under section 2.
       (b) Disposition of Records.--Upon termination of the Task 
     Force, the records of the Task Force shall become the records 
     of such committee or committees designated by the Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Burgess) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H. Res. 1367, the measure under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, on the afternoon of July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, a 
20-year-old man walked across a barren field just outside a rally for 
Donald Trump with a rifle, a transponder, and a cell phone. He 
previously flew a drone over the site.
  The man was able to traverse the field, climb up to the roof of a 
building, position his rifle at the President, and take at least five 
shots, killing one, injuring two others, and grazing the head of the 
former President.
  Thankfully, the man was neutralized shortly thereafter by the efforts 
of a nearby Secret Service countersniper team, but not before killing 
former fire Chief Corey Comperatore, who was struck as he protected his 
family from the oncoming gunfire, and critically wounding David Dutch 
and James Copenhaver.
  We are here today not just because this domestic terrorist was able 
to carry out this violent act, but also because he did not go 
undetected. Several eyewitnesses and firsthand accounts confirm that 
they had not just spotted the individual, but had also alerted 
authorities.
  A recent BBC article noted sources identified the individual as a 
person of interest 52 minutes before the first shot rang out and was 
again located 20 minutes prior, climbing a warehouse roof.
  Yet the individual was able to get to an unacceptably close distance 
and fire at our former President undeterred and came within a 
millimeter of tragically altering the history of this election and our 
Nation. The toll taken on civilians and attendees will forever remain 
an indelible stain.
  The Secret Service not only failed to protect the President, but they 
failed to protect everyday Americans who were placed in harm's way, and 
that led to tragic consequences, taking a loving father away from his 
wife and children in the process.
  The apparent failures at protecting a former President and now 
Presidential nominee are deeply troubling for their own sake, but also 
for the ramifications of the security of those trusted at the highest 
levels of our government currently and in the future.
  H. Res. 1367 establishes the Task Force on the Attempted 
Assassination of Donald Trump. The task force will be empowered with 
all of the investigative authority of the House of Representatives, 
including subpoena authority to investigate the events that led to this 
heinous attempt at political violence and intimidation.
  Mr. Speaker, this is election interference in the extreme. Political 
violence is unspeakably evil, and it is un-American regardless of 
political creed. That is why this task force will be bipartisan with 
the chairman and ranking member working together, drawing conclusions, 
and recommendations based on input from witnesses and from each other.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my fellow member and friend, Mr. Kelly of 
Pennsylvania, for sponsoring this critical legislation. It was his 
district where this occurred.
  Through the work of this task force, we will understand what went 
wrong on the day of the attempted assassination, what led to these 
failings, hold those responsible accountable, and make the necessary 
reforms to prevent this from ever happening again.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I will join the gentleman from Texas in expressing my 
anger and disgust at the cowardly attack on the former President in 
Butler, Pennsylvania, a couple of weekends ago. What happened at that 
rally was horrific and un-American.
  When the news first broke, my thoughts immediately turned to the 
former President's family, and the uncertainty and fear they must have 
felt. Our families are often the ones who shoulder the burden of the 
decisions we make, and I know that must have been an awful day for 
them.
  I am truly grateful that the former President is okay. I am also 
heartbroken over the death of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, 
who selflessly shielded his own family from the bullets. Of course, I 
will continue keeping the other two victims who were seriously wounded 
in my prayers.
  Sadly, political violence is not new to this country. One of my 
earliest memories is actually of sitting around our dining room table 
with my mother and my father and my two sisters in Worcester, 
Massachusetts, writing condolence cards to Ethel Kennedy in the wake of 
Robert Kennedy's assassination. It was an awful, awful thing. I hope 
our country never goes through that ever again.
  We don't yet know the motive of the would-be assassin, and there are 
still many unanswered questions. We know he was a disturbed, isolated 
young man, who happened to be a registered Republican who had easy 
access to an AR-15. He was doing computer searches on both Republicans 
and Democrats, on the rally in Pennsylvania, as well as the Democratic 
National Convention.
  We also know that an assassination attempt is more than just an 
attack on one person. It is an attack on the fabric of our democracy, 
and so it needs to be taken very, very seriously.
  There needs to be accountability, and I will just caution here that 
accountability does not mean finger pointing. I actually want to echo 
the remarks of the former President's family to say that many brave law 
enforcement officers and Secret Service agents put their lives on the 
line at that rally. They nearly took a bullet for the former President, 
and they ought to be applauded for their bravery.
  I also think we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions about which law 
enforcement agency or officer is to blame, whether it is this leader or 
that leader or this person or that person. We don't need to play the 
blame game. We need to know the facts. We need to get the facts.
  Clearly, there were major breakdowns in communication and planning, 
which is why we need a task force to investigate every aspect of what 
happened. Let them examine what went wrong, and let us make sure this 
never, ever happens again.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), the sponsor of this resolution.
  Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas 
for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, tonight, I rise in support of my resolution, H. Res. 
1367, which would establish a task force on the attempted assassination 
of former President Donald J. Trump.
  First, I will recognize and honor the life of a true hero, Corey 
Comperatore, who was tragically killed shielding his family from 
gunfire during former President Trump's campaign rally in my hometown 
of Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

[[Page H4893]]

  I also will take a moment to offer our thoughts and prayers for two 
Pennsylvanians who were also injured during the shooting and continue 
to recover, Mr. David Dutch of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and Mr. 
James Copenhaver of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
  I, of course, offer thoughts and prayers to former President Trump 
and his recovery. He showed incredible strength in the immediate 
aftermath of the shooting.
  First of all, Corey Comperatore was a constituent of mine from 
Sarver, Pennsylvania.

                              {time}  1730

  Corey graduated in 1992 from Freeport High School and went on to 
serve his country as a dedicated 10-year veteran of the United States 
Army Reserves.
  Corey's passion for his community and his Christian faith led him to 
serve as an active member at the Cabot Church and a member of the 
Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department, where he served as chief in 
the early 2000s.
  Above all, Corey was a loving husband and father. His obituary reads, 
``the quintessential family man and the best girl dad.''
  Together, his love for his wife, Helen, and his daughters, Allyson 
and Kaylee Comperatore, will carry on. We offer our thoughts and 
prayers to the friends and family of Corey Comperatore.
  Mr. Speaker, on July 13, 2024, the Nation watched in horror as a 
gunman attempted to assassinate the Republican Party's nominee for 
President, former President Donald J. Trump.
  This day will go down in infamy in American history, but nowhere more 
so than in my hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania, where it will always be 
remembered that the assassination of former President Donald Trump took 
place.
  I have lived in Butler literally my whole life. I went to high school 
there. My wife and I have raised our family there. I have coached 
Little League football and Little League baseball, and our family 
business is there. Now, I am fortunate enough to represent my town 
right here in the United States House of Representatives. I can tell 
you that my community is grieving. They are shocked by what happened in 
our backyard.
  The people of Butler and the people of the United States deserve 
answers. I am proud to introduce this bill to establish a task force to 
get to the bottom of how this unthinkable tragedy could ever have 
occurred.
  This bipartisan task force will have investigative authority, 
including subpoena power, to thoroughly analyze the circumstances 
surrounding the assassination attempt and ensure that these failures 
that occurred that day never happen again.
  I thank Speaker Johnson, Leader Scalise, Chairman Burgess, and our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle for working with us to stand 
up this task force.
  When the American people lose faith, trust, and confidence in their 
government, then the question is going to be who will fix it. The 
answer is we are. We are.
  In this House, we are the ones that are going to fix it. The American 
people deserve to know, and we have the responsibility to find the 
answers for them.
  President Trump deserves answers, the Comperatore family deserves 
answers, and the American people deserve answers. I will not rest until 
we get these answers for all of our constituents and fellow Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce), a member of the Pennsylvania delegation.
  Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Texas for yielding.
  On July 13, the Secret Service failed in its mission to protect 
President Donald J. Trump. By failing to properly secure the perimeter, 
by failing to adequately communicate about a security threat, a known 
security threat, and by failing to keep President Trump from being 
struck by a shot fired by a would-be assassin, the Secret Service 
failed the American people.
  While the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is 
a necessary first step, it does not absolve the agency of its 
responsibility for what occurred.
  To address this critical flaw, Congress must investigate the 
circumstances that led up to this incident, including the decisions 
that were made and including the decisions that should have been made 
to prevent this tragedy.
  Among those who were struck by gunfire was Fire Chief Corey 
Comperatore, who was killed while shielding his wife and daughter.
  There needs to be accountability for what happened on that Saturday 
afternoon in Butler County, and I urge all of my colleagues to support 
H. Res. 1367, Establishing the Task Force on the Attempted 
Assassination of Donald J. Trump.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman 
from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach), a valuable member of the Rules 
Committee.
  Mrs. FISCHBACH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair for yielding me some 
time on this issue.
  Less than 2 weeks ago, Donald Trump, a former President and 
Presidential candidate, was inches away from being assassinated. 
Thousands at his rally were put at risk.
  As my colleagues from Pennsylvania mentioned, two people were 
injured, and Corey Comperatore was tragically killed while protecting 
his family. All this happened because of a catastrophic failure on the 
part of government security forces.
  The resignation of Secret Service Director Cheatle is the first step 
toward holding failures accountable, but there is so much work to be 
done. We need to get to the bottom of this failure, and we need to do 
it now.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to 
do the same. We must get answers to the American people.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser).
  Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Texas, 
very much for yielding time.
  I rise today in support of H. Res. 1367, which forms a task force to 
address the shocking attack on President Trump. I thank my colleague, 
Mike Kelly, very much for bringing this resolution to the floor.

  This attack tragically took the life of a brave Pennsylvanian, Corey 
Comperatore.
  As an eyewitness to this event, along with my colleague, Mike Kelly, 
I stand here on behalf of the American people, especially 
Pennsylvanians, who deserve answers to critical questions about this 
tragedy.
  Why was the building the gunman used allowed to be outside of the 
security perimeter? Why was there no Secret Service stationed on the 
roof? Why wasn't there a plan executed and a high sense of emergency 
and urgency taking place?
  Director Cheatle's remarks the other day did nothing to inspire 
confidence or for us to believe that this situation is going to be 
corrected appropriately and in a high-priority manner.
  Senseless political violence demands nothing else than a unified 
response from both Democrats and Republicans. We must come together and 
form a bipartisan task force to uncover the truth and provide answers.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very happy and proud to support this legislation, 
H. Res. 1367, which aims to achieve just that.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), the sponsor of the resolution.
  Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Burgess for 
this opportunity to finish up as well as Mr. McGovern on the other side 
of the aisle.
  I think, at this point, this is not about Republicans or Democrats. 
This is about a tragedy that happened in a small town in western 
Pennsylvania, which never should have occurred.
  I think it is really important, as the American people watched this 
whole

[[Page H4894]]

scenario, to answer: How could that possibly have happened? What didn't 
we know, or what did we know that we didn't react to? Why, at the end 
of the day, are there more questions than there are answers?
  We can't get answers that, I think, are very simple.
  For a person who grew up there, and I know that site so well, I was 
concerned when that site was picked because I thought it would be a 
very difficult place to have a rally of that size.
  This is not a criticism of law enforcement. This isn't a criticism of 
whoever it is that picked that site. This is an opportunity for this 
House to work together to settle the doubts that the American people 
have, the faith, trust, and confidence that they need to have in us 
that we can work together, both sides of the aisle, when we have a 
crisis like this.
  It goes far beyond politics, and it goes far beyond policies. It is 
truly American in every sense.
  Mr. McGovern is present with us today, and I thank Chairman Burgess 
so much, and I think this more than anything else can demonstrate to 
the American people that we can work together. We can work together as 
Republicans and Democrats to get answers for the American people, 
answers that they deserve and answers that they have been wondering 
about since July 13.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Let me just say to the gentleman from Pennsylvania that I agree. One 
of the reasons why I think there would be overwhelmingly bipartisan 
support for this task force is because people want to get the answers. 
What happened, and how do we make sure that it never happens again?
  Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot of talk about the need to turn down the 
temperature in this country moving forward. I put out a bipartisan 
statement alongside my friend, Chairman Burgess, the day after the 
assassination attempt, and we talked about how to move forward.
  The bottom line, we agreed, is that we can have loud, passionate, 
even at times angry debates in this country. That is the way it goes in 
a democracy as big and diverse as ours, but at the end of the day, we 
are all Americans who love this country deeply, and we must resolve our 
differences peacefully.
  I think Robert F. Kennedy, a hero of mine whose life was taken by an 
assassin's bullet when I was just 8 years old, said it best. ``A sniper 
is only a coward, not a hero, and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob 
is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.
  ``Whenever any American's life is taken by another American 
unnecessarily, whether it is done in the name of the law or in the 
defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in 
an attack of violence or in response to violence, whenever we tear at 
the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven 
for himself and his children, the whole Nation is degraded.''
  Mr. Speaker, what was true in 1968 is true today. Our common bond as 
Americans demands that we speak out against violence and condemn it 
whenever and wherever we see it. We can't pick and choose. It needs to 
be condemned all the time, even when it is not easy or convenient to do 
that.
  That hasn't always been the case, if we are being honest, and that 
makes me sad. It makes me sad that we had some people make fun of 
Speaker Pelosi's husband, Paul, when he was violently attacked with a 
hammer.
  We need to come together, Mr. Speaker. We need unity. We have people 
who still refuse to condemn what happened on January 6, when a violent 
mob beat up police officers and tried to execute Vice President Mike 
Pence, right here outside the Capitol Building. Police died that day.
  I am comfortable condemning political violence all of the time, 
period, end of discussion. I think the bipartisan nature of this 
resolution is a sign of hope for me that we will move even further in 
that direction.
  I know the gentleman on the other side is as well comfortable calling 
out violence wherever it may occur, but we need to get to a place in 
this country where all of our colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, 
feel compelled to do the same.
  I hope we get to that point because political violence is against 
everything America ought to stand for.
  When the Founders of this country put pen to paper, they imagined a 
future where reason would triumph over fear, a world where the ballot, 
not the bullet, would determine who would wield power, a Nation where 
the consent of the governed, not the fear of force, would confer 
legitimacy upon our leaders.
  Generations of Americans have worked hard to turn those dreams into a 
reality, to expand the circle of our democracy and make real the 
promise of this country for all. Political violence is the ultimate 
betrayal of that work. It is a dead end that leads only to disaster.
  What happened on July 13 was an awful, cowardly, despicable attack, 
something that should never ever have happened, and I hope that this 
task force gets answers on behalf of the American people.
  We need to know what happened. We need to get to the truth. We need 
to find a way to prevent this from ever happening again.
  Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleagues here in urging a ``yes'' vote 
on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, political violence--this was election interference in 
the extreme.
  Just an hour, an hour and a half ago, in this very Chamber, the Prime 
Minister of Israel spoke with us. One of his comments was that there is 
no room for political violence in a democracy. I agree with him. I am 
so relieved that the Secret Service Director did resign.
  How do you comport the idea that it was reported that there was 
evidence of an Iranian plot against the life of Donald Trump, and then 
you let a teenager wander over that field for an hour and fly a drone 
overhead? It makes no sense that that could have happened. Of course, 
the only answer for the Director of the Secret Service was resignation.
  More than that, we as a body, we as a Congress, need to put together 
this task force to understand and get to the bottom of what occurred on 
July 13. It is our duty.

                              {time}  1745

  It is our duty. It is our duty for the sake of future leaders of this 
Nation. It is our duty for our children and grandchildren. We have to 
understand the circumstances that allowed the assassination attempt to 
occur and, of course, to ensure that it never happens again.
  I once again urge all my colleagues to support this critical 
legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Smith of Nebraska). The question is on 
the motion offered by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) that the 
House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1367, as 
amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. BURGESS. 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, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

                          ____________________