[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10110]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 OPPOSING CONTEMPT CITATION AGAINST THE HONORABLE ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., 
                 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES

  (Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Madam Speaker, tomorrow we risk bringing 
dishonor to this House.
  For Members who revere Congress as the legislative branch of 
government, the majority's irresponsible and unprecedented contempt 
vote is just another sad chapter in our recent institutional decline. I 
implore my colleagues to give careful consideration as to whether we 
truly want the 112th Congress to become the first in history to hold a 
sitting Cabinet member in contempt of Congress.
  Do we really want our legacy to be establishing one of the most 
partisan House of Representatives of all time, so clouded in judgment, 
so besotted with rancor and partisanship, that we are incapable of 
addressing vital separation of powers conflicts in a serious and fair 
fashion?
  Further negotiations with the Department of Justice and the Attorney 
General are clearly available if we want a solution. I urge my 
colleagues to join me in restoring honor and dignity to this House by 
opposing the nuclear option: a contempt citation.

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