[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12438]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WATERGATE ALL OVER AGAIN?

  (Mr. EDWARDS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, destruction of evidence, obstruction of 
justice, withholding of secret taped conversations between government 
officials and possible wrongdoing, misuse of Federal law enforcement 
agencies for domestic political purposes.
  It sounds like Watergate in 1974 and Richard Nixon, does it not? Yes, 
it does. But sadly, these government abuses have occurred in the last 
10 days in our country. The silence of Republic leadership and the 
majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), on these 
government abuses is deafening.
  These are the facts: last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland 
Security had to admit it used Federal antiterrorism resources paid for 
by taxpayers to track down Texas State legislators, hardly a terrorist 
threat even on their worst days.
  Fact number two: in a taped telephone conversation last week, the 
Texas Department of Public Safety apparently asked, unethically if not 
illegally, for the U.S. Homeland Security Agency to get involved in 
this political matter.
  Fact number three: the U.S. Homeland Security Agency refuses to let 
the public know what was on those taped conversations. Today, we now 
find out there is destruction of evidence by the Texas Department of 
Public Safety.
  The American people deserve answers.

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