May 23, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 87 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION FOR AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE COMMITTEE 
 ON THE JUDICIARY TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER SUFFICIENT GROUNDS EXIST FOR 
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO EXERCISE THE POWER VESTED BY ARTICLE 1, 
     SECTION 2, CLAUSE 5 OF THE CONSTITUTION IN RESPECT TO ACTS OF 
    MISCONDUCT BY DONALD JOHN TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 23, 2019

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to announce to the House that 
I have introduced H. Res. 396, a resolution authorizing and directing 
the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether sufficient 
grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise the power 
vested by Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 of the Constitution in respect 
to acts of misconduct by Donald John Trump, President of the United 
States.
  I invite every Member of the House to join me in cosponsoring this 
important and necessary step to uphold the rule of law, preserve the 
strength of our democracy, and affirm the rightful place of the 
Congress as a co-equal branch of government with the constitutional 
duty to check and hold accountable a wayward head of the Executive 
Branch.
  This resolution is both necessary and timely.
  Last week, hours before the House Judiciary Committee was to vote to 
hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of congress, the President 
indicated that he intended to assert executive privilege to deny 
Congress and the American people the Mueller Report.
  Yesterday, the White House Counsel indicated that it believes that 
the House Judiciary Committee's inquiry was an improper exercise of its 
oversight powers and was instead intended to ``harass'' the President.
  The White House Counsel, in mistaken belief that the Mueller 
Investigation was the final word into investigations concerning this 
President, stated that Congress was not permitted ``an unauthorized do-
over of exhaustive law enforcement investigations conducted by the 
Department of Justice.''
  The White House position is clearly wrong on history, on the law, and 
on the Constitution, but more that than, it is reckless and 
destabilizing.
  It disregards or misapprehends the nature, structure, and purpose of 
the system of government devised by the Framers that served us well for 
nearly 250 years.
  It contemplates branches of government superior to others and 
represents an indifference, belligerence and disrespect towards Article 
I of the Constitution unseen in American history.
  Congressional requests for documents have been ignored, subpoenas 
have been flouted, witnesses refuse to appear for congressional 
oversight hearings, norms shattered.
  This is intolerable and why, in consultation with and by working with 
my colleagues, I have introduced H. Res. 396, a resolution authorizing 
and directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether 
sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise 
the power vested by Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 of the Constitution 
in respect to acts of misconduct by Donald John Trump, President of the 
United States.
  This is a significant measure because it invoives not just the 
standing committees but the whole House of Representatives, the body 
that is vested by the Constitution with the ``sole power of 
impeachment.''
  Madam Speaker, if approved by the House, H. Res. 396 gives the 
Committee on Judiciary a broad and affirmative mandate by the body that 
is vested with the sole power conveyed by Article 1, Section 2, Clause 
5 to investigate the areas of possible misconduct listed in the 
Resolving clause.
  Since 1900, responsibility for conducting investigations of the type 
envisioned by the resolution has been delegated by the House to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Nothing in the resolution preempts or forecloses any other Committee 
of the House from exercising its oversight authority and adoption of 
the resolution will convey to the Administration, the public, and 
relevant witnesses the seriousness to which the House takes its 
responsibilities to act as a check on a wayward Executive and the 
gravity of the findings and conclusions set forth in the Mueller 
Report.
  Finally, nothing in the resolution compels the Committee on the 
Judiciary to reach a particular result or make a particular 
recommendation; rather, the resolution charges the Committee with 
undertaking a comprehensive investigation following the evidence where 
it leads and reporting its conclusions and recommendations to the full 
House.
  Madam Speaker, the time has come to reassert proper oversight in our 
system of government.
  During the first two years of this administration, House Republicans 
shirked their oversight responsibilities.
  This new House majority, propelled by the largest class of women and 
the most diverse class in history, will do its job to ensure the 
preservation of this government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people.

                          ____________________