[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15821]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   NOTICE OF INTENTION TO OFFER RESOLUTION RAISING A QUESTION OF THE 
                        PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to give notice of my intention to 
raise a question of the privileges of the House.
  The form of the resolution is as follows:
  Whereas the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, took 
the lives of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service 
Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen 
Doherty;
  Whereas the events leading up to and in the immediate aftermath of 
the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were rightfully and 
thoroughly examined to honor the memory of the victims and to improve 
the safety of the men and women serving our country overseas;
  Whereas the independent Accountability Review Board convened by the 
U.S. State Department investigated the events in Benghazi and found no 
evidence of deliberate wrongdoing;
  Whereas five committees in the U.S. House of Representatives 
investigated the events in Benghazi and found no evidence of deliberate 
wrongdoing;
  Whereas four committees in the U.S. Senate investigated the events in 
Benghazi and found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing;
  Whereas in each fiscal year, more than $4 billion is appropriated to 
run the Congress, with untold amounts of this taxpayer money expended 
by nine Congressional committees to investigate the events in Benghazi, 
none of which produced any evidence of deliberate wrongdoing;
  Whereas after the exhaustive, thorough, and costly investigations by 
nine Congressional committees and the independent Accountability Review 
Board found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing, Republican leaders in 
the House insisted on using taxpayer dollars to fund a new, duplicative 
``Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack 
in Benghazi,'' (hereafter the Select Committee) to re-examine the 
matter;
  Whereas this taxpayer-funded committee was given broad powers to 
pursue its investigations, including an unlimited, taxpayer-funded 
budget and granting the Chairman the legal authority to subpoena 
documents and compel testimony without any debate or a vote;
  Whereas the ongoing Republican-led investigation into the events in 
Benghazi is now one of the longest running and least productive 
investigations in Congressional history;
  Whereas a widely-quoted statement made on September 29th, 2015 by 
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Leader of the House of 
Representatives, has called into question the integrity of the 
proceedings of the Select Committee and the House of Representatives as 
a whole;
  Whereas this statement by Representative McCarthy demonstrates that 
the Select Committee established by Republican leaders in the House of 
Representatives was created to influence public opinion of a 
presidential candidate;
  Whereas the Select Committee has been in existence for 17 months but 
has held only three hearings;
  Whereas the Select Committee abandoned its plans to obtain public 
testimony from Defense Department and Intelligence Community leaders;
  Whereas the Select Committee excluded Democratic Members from 
interviews of witnesses who provided exculpatory information related to 
its investigation;
  Whereas information obtained by the Select Committee has been 
selectively and inaccurately leaked to influence the electoral standing 
of a candidate for public office;
  Whereas such actions represent an abuse of power that demonstrates 
the partisan nature of the Select Committee;
  Whereas the Select Committee has spent more than $4.5 million in 
taxpayer funds to date to advance its partisan efforts;
  Whereas this amount does not include the costs of the independent 
Accountability Review Board; the hearings and reports by nine 
Congressional committees; the time, money, and resources consumed by 
Federal agencies to comply with Select Committee requests; or the 
opportunity cost of not spending this money elsewhere, such as 
improving security for our diplomatic officers abroad;
  Whereas it is an outrage that more than $4.5 million in taxpayer 
funds have been used by Republicans in the House of Representatives, 
not to run the government, but to interfere inappropriately with an 
election for president of the United States;
  Whereas the use of taxpayer dollars by the House of Representatives 
for campaign purposes is a violation of the Rules of the House and 
Federal law;
  Resolved, That: (1) this misuse of the official resources of the 
House of Representatives for political purposes undermines the 
integrity of the proceedings of the House and brings discredit to the 
House; (2) the integrity of the proceedings of the House can be fully 
restored only by the dissolution of the Select Committee; and (3) the 
Select Committee shall be dismantled and is hereby directed to make 
public within thirty days transcripts of all unclassified interviews 
and depositions it has conducted.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Denham). Under rule IX, a resolution 
offered from the floor by a Member other than the majority leader or 
the minority leader as a question of the privileges of the House has 
immediate precedence only at a time designated by the Chair within 2 
legislative days after the resolution is properly noticed.
  Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the 
gentlewoman from New York will appear in the Record at this point.
  The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution 
constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at 
the time designated for consideration of the resolution.

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