[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18293]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           MISUSE OF FEDERAL RESOURCES FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
express my concern over the partisan political use of Federal resources 
by the majority party. Roughly 2 months ago, the Justice Department, 
the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Homeland 
Security were all called upon to track down Democratic members of the 
Texas legislature, even though they had broken no law, nor endangered 
public safety nor homeland security.
  I applaud the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) for introducing three 
resolutions of inquiry in an effort to get to the bottom of all of 
this. This afternoon, the Select Committee on Homeland Security will 
mark up its resolution, which asks the Secretary of Homeland Security 
to transmit all relevant information about the Texas mess to the House.
  We must not allow the misuse of Federal resources for political 
purposes. These resources exist to protect the public from harm, not to 
protect the Republicans in Congress from political challenge.

                          ____________________