[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 24, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





              HONORING THE LIFE OF MORTON (MORT) ROSENBERG

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TED LIEU

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 24, 2025

  Mr. LIEU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer sincere condolences to 
the family, friends, and colleagues of Morton (Mort) Rosenberg, who 
passed away last month.
  Mort stands out as one of our strongest and most astute advocates for 
congressional prerogatives under the Constitution. It is no 
understatement that every Member of this body--on both sides of the 
aisle--owes a debt of gratitude to Mort for his tireless and 
nonpartisan work over his many decades of service, both for the 
Congressional Research Service (CRS) and after his retirement. I am 
personally indebted to Mort for his seminal scholarship on Congress's 
power of inherent contempt, which informed my legislative work on the 
subject, as reflected in H. Res. 136, which I introduced in the 118th 
Congress to amend House Rules with respect to the enforcement of 
committee subpoenas to executive branch officials.
  Mort was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1935, graduated from New York 
University and Harvard Law School, and completed his Ph.D. at Johns 
Hopkins University. From 1972 to 2008, Mort worked at CRS as a 
Specialist in American Public Law in the American Law Division. During 
his career at CRS, he was detailed as legal counsel to a special 
investigative committee and served as a legal advisor to the House 
General Counsel. Following retirement, Mort worked with the 
Constitution Project, Good Government Now, the Public Company 
Accounting Oversight Board, and the law firm of Barnett Sivon & Natter. 
Mort's areas of expertise included constitutional law, administrative 
law, congressional practice and procedure, and labor law. Some of his 
most important work focused on the scope of congressional oversight and 
investigative prerogatives, and the validity of claims of executive and 
common-law privileges.
  During and following his career at CRS, Mort authored and contributed 
to dozens of significant memoranda, reports, academic articles, 
testimony, papers, and advocacy pieces. In addition, Mort contributed 
to federal court litigation, assisting with Supreme Court oral argument 
preparation in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB (2010), and authoring an 
amicus brief in NLRB v. SW General (2017), which was cited five times 
in the majority opinion. He also submitted amicus briefs in 
congressional oversight cases, including McGahn v. House Judiciary 
Committee (2020). In 2005, Mort received the 2004-2005 Mary C. Lawton 
Award for Outstanding Public Service from the American Bar 
Association's Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.
  In my view, Mort's most important legacy stems from his 
groundbreaking work on Congress's inherent contempt authority and his 
proposals for revitalizing its enforcement power as follows:

       Congress's Contempt Power: Law, History, Practice, and 
     Procedure (CRS Report RL34097, co-authored with Todd B. 
     Tatelman, 2007)
       Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and 
     Government Reform on the Department of Justice's obligation 
     to respond to congressional subpoenas (2011)
       Testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on 
     the challenges Congress faces when the executive branch 
     refuses to recognize contempt citations (2016)
       Reasserting Congress's Investigative Authority (R Street 
     Policy Study No. 103, R Street Institute, July 2017)
       Summary of Proposed Inherent Contempt Rule (Good Government 
     Now, co-authored with William J. Murphy, July 2018)
       Why Congress Can Impose Fines for Contempt (Good Government 
     Now, co-authored with William J. Murphy, August 5, 2018)
       Understanding and Confronting the Current Executive 
     Challenges to Effective Congressional Investigative Oversight 
     (Good Government Now, July 4, 2018)
       Can a Revised Inherent Contempt Procedure Strengthen 
     Enforcement of House Subpoenas to the Executive Branch? (Good 
     Government Now, Statement for Panel Discussion, October 19, 
     2018)
       The Road to Effective Enforcement of House Committee 
     Subpoenas (``Point of Order,'' April 27, 2019)
       Proposed Inherent Contempt Procedure Rule for the House 
     (Good Government Now, 2019)

  Above and beyond his impressive body of legal scholarship, Mort was a 
generous mentor, teacher, and advisor to CRS and congressional staff. 
In the words of his former CRS colleague (and current Deputy General 
Counsel of the House Office of General Counsel), Todd Tatelman: Mort 
was everything you could want in a mentor and teacher. He was a master 
storyteller, with a steel-trap memory. He would regale anyone who would 
listen with endless tales of congressional history, recalling meetings, 
hearings, briefings, and memoranda he wrote on incredibly esoteric 
subjects with such detail that you had to listen to.
  Mort leaves behind an unmatched legacy of family, friends, and 
colleagues. While Members of Congress may no longer be able to call 
upon him to testify, write a report, or file an amicus brief on our 
behalf, we will continue to benefit from his scholarship and wisdom for 
generations to come.

                          ____________________