[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 25, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H2929-H2930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CANCELLATION OF IRAN CLASSIFIED BRIEFING

  (Mr. Schneider of Illinois was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Speaker, what are you and the President afraid of? 
What are you hiding? You and the administration are shirking your duty 
to provide Members of Congress a timely and complete classified 
briefing about Saturday's U.S. strike on Iran, on the intelligence that 
justified it, on the legal justification, on the objectives, and on the 
consequences.
  Mr. Speaker, we should not have to remind you that the Constitution 
gives only Congress, not the President, the exclusive power to declare 
war. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the President, after 
taking military action, to provide to Congress the information it needs 
``in the fulfillment of its constitutional responsibilities with 
respect to committing the Nation to war and to the use of United States 
Armed Forces abroad.''
  Yesterday, all Members of this House, Republicans and Democrats, were 
to receive an already overdue classified briefing from administration 
officials. However, moments before the briefing was scheduled to begin, 
you and the administration abruptly, without explanation, canceled it, 
leaving Members of Congress and the American people in the dark.
  There are now reports of a leaked classified battle damage assessment 
from the Defense Intelligence Agency that disputes what the President 
and the Secretary of Defense have been telling us. The American people 
are left wondering: Are the President and the Secretary telling the 
truth?
  Again, I ask you, Mr. Speaker, what are you and the President afraid 
of? What are you trying to hide?
  We are proud of the extraordinary servicemembers who put their lives 
on the line and perfectly executed a complex battle plan, expertly 
hitting their intended targets at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

[[Page H2930]]

  We can see from the publicly available satellite imagery that the 
bombs at Fordow, for example, entered the fortified mountain location 
exactly where intended.
  The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is buried 300 feet below ground. We 
can't see inside the mountain to know with certainty whether the GBU-
57s ``obliterated'' the FFEP or not.
  That is what makes the leaked report so concerning and why it is so 
important for the administration to give Members of Congress the full 
details in a classified setting.
  Canceling or even delaying the briefing is completely unacceptable 
and a failure of your duties and responsibilities to this body.
  Mr. Speaker, the stakes could not be higher.
  For more than 40 years, Iran has threatened its neighbors, threatened 
Israel, the United States, and the world. Under the Ayatollahs, Iran 
has been the largest state sponsor of terror in the world. It has 
financed, trained, and directed Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic 
jihad, and the Houthis. For the last 30 years, Iran has marched forward 
in the pursuit of nuclear weapons, all while chanting: ``Death to 
Israel, death to America.''
  Let me state the obvious: Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear 
weapons, ever.
  President Trump's decision to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA in 
2018 enabled Iran to advance forward in its nuclear program to the 
point that the regime was weeks, if not days, from having sufficient 
enriched uranium for multiple nuclear bombs.
  Some have assessed that Iran could have built up to 10 nuclear bombs 
within a few months or even a few weeks. The worry, after the IAEA 
report issued 2 weeks ago declaring Iran was no longer in compliance 
with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, was that the regime may have 
decided to do exactly that.
  I just returned from visiting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United 
Arab Emirates with colleagues, both Democrat and Republican. All these 
countries recognize that a nuclear-armed Iran poses an existential 
threat to their futures, and of course to Israel, as well as the United 
States and Europe, so I support the U.S. efforts to stop Iran's march 
to a nuclear weapon.
  However, we cannot permanently end Iran's nuclear programs without a 
negotiated agreement, without inspectors on the ground, without Iran 
agreeing to reverse course. We must permanently block every path to a 
nuclear weapon that Iran might have.
  The 12-day war over the skies of Iran and Israel has certainly 
weakened Iran's program, but we don't know without a classified 
briefing if it has obliterated it, if it has defeated it.
  In fact, we don't know the full extent of the damage to the program. 
How much of the more than 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium was 
Iran able to hide? How many centrifuges remain intact and operational? 
How easily can Iran replace the nuclear scientists eliminated by 
Israel? Was Fordow, as claimed, obliterated, or slightly damaged and 
easily repaired?
  Again, Mr. Speaker, we didn't get the briefing. This is unacceptable.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind the gentleman that it 
is unacceptable for a Member to attempt to involve the neutral 
presiding officer as part of the debate. Such conduct undermines this 
House, the goal of impartial, analytic consistency in presiding that is 
required of a Member serving as Chair.

                          ____________________