mr. cummings and mr. smith have said. if there is a subpoena, there should be consultation and if that consultation does not produce concurrence, there shouldn't be a vote of the committee. it means that they have the votes, 7-5, to pass what they have. but that vote would have to take place in a business meeting which is in open session and that's what they are afraid of. i come book to the word transparency. transparency, fairness balance and all of this. i would like to -- hear from your view. we are proud from our entire committee, we think we have strength this terms of knowledge and understanding of what the challenges are and also shall we say experienced leaders in the congress. >> i'm congresswoman linda sanchez. i serve on the ways and means committee and ethics committee. as somebody who is in a position to have to be a trier of fact and take in evidence and make decisions based on what the evidence shows, when your leader asks you to serve your country on a select committee, it makes sense to be in that room a

mr. cummings: mr. speaker, as i close, i want to remind all of my colleagues several references have been made to the oath that we take every two years in this chamber. and every two years we extend in this chamber and say i will swear and support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. the first words we say. but it's interesting that in the beginning of that swearing-in is that we will defend the constitution of the united states of america. and yesterday, we had a very interesting argument in rules when one of the members of the rules committee questioned whether when one becomes a public employee, whether they then lose their rights as an american citizen. and it is clear that those rights do stand no matter whether you are a public servant or whether you are a janitor at some coffee shop. and we are in a situation today where we need to be very clear what's happening. not since mccarthy has this been tried, that is the stripping away of an american citizen's constitut

mr. cummings: mr. speaker, as i close, i want to remind all of my colleagues several references have been made to the oath that we take every two years in this chamber. and every two years we extend in this chamber and say i will swear and support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. the first words we say. but it's interesting that in the beginning of that swearing-in is that we will defend the constitution of the united states of america. and yesterday, we had a very interesting argument in rules when one of the members of the rules committee questioned whether when one becomes a public employee, whether they then lose their rights as an american citizen. and it is clear that those rights do stand no matter whether you are a public servant or whether you are a janitor at some coffee shop. and we are in a situation today where we need to be very clear what's happening. not since mccarthy has this been tried, that is the stripping away of an american citizen's constitut

mr. cummings and mr. smith have said. if there is a subpoena, there should be consultation and if that consultation does not produce concurrence, there shouldn't be a vote of the committee. it means that they have the votes, 7-5, to pass what they have. but that vote would have to take place in a business meeting which is in open session and that's what they are afraid of. i come book to the word transparency. transparency, fairness balance and all of this. i would like to -- hear from your view. we are proud from our entire committee, we think we have strength this terms of knowledge and understanding of what the challenges are and also shall we y experienced leaders in the congress. >> i'm congresswoman linda sanchez. i serve on the ways and means committee and ethics committee. as somebody who is in a position to have to be a trier of fact and take in evidence and make decisions based on what the your leaderws, when asks you to serve your country on a select committee, it makes sense to be in that room and we have a lo

mr. cummings, will each control 5 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. issa: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include -- insert extraneous material into the record for the resolution made in order under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so oferede -- so ordered. the speaker pro tempore: the -- so ordered. the gentleman from california. mr. issa: i yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. 2013, : on march 29, the congress started an investigation into whether the i.r.s. used a flawed process to find tax exempt organizations. to wit, i subpoenaed lois lerner because she was in charge of the office that executed and we believe targeted conservative group thesms two divisions of the i.r.a. most involved with the targeting were the e.o. determinations unit in cincinnati and the e.o. technical unit in washington, d.c., headed by lois lerner. before the hearing, ms. lerner's lawyer notified the committee that she

mr. cummings just said and what mr. smith said, if there's going to be a subpoena there should be consultation and if that's consultation does not produce concurrence than if it's controvercontrover sial than there should be a vote of the committee. it doesn't say nine boats, a vote of the committee. it means that they have the votes 7-5 in the committee to pass what they have but that vote would have to take place in a business meeting which is an open session and that is what i think they are afraid of. so i come back to the word transparency. transparency, fairness balance in all of this. i would like steve to hear from either of you before we go. >> we are very proud of our entire committee. we think we have strength in terms of knowledge and understanding of what the challenges and also shall we say experience leaders at hearings in congress. >> thank you. i'm congresswoman linda sanchez. i serve on the ways & means committee and the ethics committee so as somebody who is in a position to have to be a try or a fact

mr. cummings. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for five minutes. mr. cummings: i rise in strong opposition to this resolution. benghazi was a tragedy. we lost four brave americans that night. and i extend my deepest sympathies to their families. in my opinion, we honor their memories best by bringing the killers to justice and by working in a bipartisan way to strengthen security for all u.s. personnel overseas. as family members of ambassador stevens has stated, and i quote, what chris never would have accepted was the idea that his death would have been used for political purposes, end of quote. unfortunately, that is what house republicans have been doing for the last year and a half. n april 23, 2013, republican five n of dive -- different house committees issued a staff report with no consultation or input from a single democratic member of the united states house of representatives. their report included a reckless accusation that secretary clinton authorized security reductions in benghazi. chairman issa then went on national television and said

mr. cummings: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cummings: just shy of a year ago, the secretary general of facts administration reported the i.r.s. had used inappropriate criteria to review applicants for tax exempt status. the same day, chairman issa wept on national tv, before he received a single document or interviewed a single witness, and said the following. this was the targeting of the president's political enemies. targeting of d -- the president's political enemies and lies about it,ent end of quote. the republicans have spent the last year trying to prove these allegations. the i.r.s. has produced more than half a million pages of documents. we have interviewed 39 witnesses, 40 witnesses, i.r.s. witnesses, treasury department employees. and after all of that, we have not found any evidence of white house involvement or political motivation. yesterday, i issued a report with key portions from the nearly 40 interviews conducted by the committee to date. these were w

mr. cummings' committee.ith their leadership and persistence, we will do right by the families of the victims. by the way, two families have communicated with us saying, don't take us down this path again. why is this being done? we hope that we can shine a light on where our focus should be, preventing a benghazi from ever happening again. i told the speaker in a phone call that i just had with him that i'm hopeful that ranking member cummings and chairman gowdy can come to better terms on how we proceed. and it's with that hope and his great leadership that i present the chairman of our ranking member on this committee, mr. cummings. >> thank you very much, madam leader. i, too, agree with you that we must be in pursuit of fairness and transparency, not only for the families of these great americans who we lost in libya but also for the american people. i do not believe a select committee is called for after eight reports, dozens of witness interviews and a review of more than 25,000 pages of documents. man

mr. cummings is meeting with mr. gowdy to specifically ask, what is the mission of this select committee? because it's incumbent on mr. gowdy to define what information is it that they're searching for, that isn't already contained in the eight reports that have been produced about benghazi. what information is lacking? because i think the material has been thoroughly gone over. so i think that it's a question for the chairman of this committee, mr. gowdy, what information is it that he's seeking that has not already been provided. what questions need to be answered that have not already been asked and answered, not once, but multiple times, at great cost to american taxpayer. >> congresswoman, if that is your position, then why couldn't democrats ask those very questions from the sidelines? why sit on the panel and essentially allow republicans to call it bipartisan? haven't you essentially emboldened republicans, whatever fishing expedition you do, you're actually giving it legitimacy? >> i think that's not correct

mr. cummings committee. their leadership and persistence, we will do right by the families of the victims. by the way, two families have communicated with us saying don't take us down this path again. why are -- is this being done? we hope that we can shine a light on where our focus should be, preventing strategy on benghazi from ever happening again. i told the speaker in a phone call i just had with him that i'm hopeful that ranking member cummings and chairman gowdy can come to some better terms on how we proceed and it is with that hope and his great leadership that i present the chairman of our ranking member on this committee, mr. cummings. >> thank you very much, madam leader, and i, too, agree with you that we must be in pursuit of fairness and transparency not only for the families of these great americans who we lost in libya, but also for the american people. i do not believe the select committee has called for after eight reports dozens of witness interviews in a review of more than 25,000 pages

mr. cummings: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cummings: just shy of a year ago, the secretary general of facts administration reported the i.r.s. had used inappropriate criteria to review applicants for tax exempt status. the same day, chairman issa wept on national tv, before he received a single document or interviewed a single witness, and said the following. this was the targeting of the president's political enemies. targeting of d -- the president's political enemies and lies about it,ent end of quote. the republicans have spent the last year trying to prove these allegations. the i.r.s. has produced more than half a million pages of documents. we have interviewed 39 witnesses, 40 witnesses, i.r.s. witnesses, treasury department employees. and after all of that, we have not found any evidence of white house involvement or political motivation. yesterday, i issued a report with key portions from the nearly 40 interviews conducted by the committee to date. these were w

mr. cummings. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for five minutes. mr. cummings: i rise in strong opposition to this resolution. benghazi was a tragedy. we lost four brave americans that night. and i extend my deepest sympathies to their families. in my opinion, we honor their memories best by bringing the killers to justice and by working in a bipartisan way to strengthen security for all u.s. personnel overseas. as family members of ambassador stevens has stated, and i quote, what chris never would have accepted was the idea that his death would have been used for political purposes, end of quote. unfortunately, that is what house republicans have been doing for the last year and a half. n april 23, 2013, republican five n of dive -- different house committees issued a staff report with no consultation or input from a single democratic member of the united states house of representatives. their report included a reckless accusation that secretary clinton authorized security reductions in benghazi. chairman issa then went on national television and said

mr. cummings' committee. with their leadership and persistence we will do right by the families of the the victims. by the way, two families have communicated with us saying don't take us down this path again. why is this being done? we hope that we can shine a light on where our focus should be, preventing tragedy like benghazi from ever happening again. i told the speaker in a phone call i just had with him that i'm hopeful that ranking member cummings and chairman gowdy can come to better terms as to how we proceed. it's with that hope and his great leadership that i present the chairman, our ranking member on this committee, mr. cummings. >> thank you very much. >> gloria borger and dana bash, let me bring you both in. we heard leader pelosi saying she wants her five democrats to be there, to fight for this fair hearing and process. that's the point of the column i just read of yours. they're calling this whole thing a witch hunt. they don't want to legitimize the process. if they're not there, to your po

mr. cummings, would you yield for question? i'm trying to understand -- all he units you mentioned were headed to tripoli. none were headed to benghazi. you know that, right? when it comes to what was done for the people dying in benghazi, none of them were going to help them. they were not activated for the people dying in benghazi. >> i asked him what i wanted to ask him. he was very clear, and i appreciate it. >> thank you. we now go to the gentlelady from wyoming. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield such portion of my time as he wishes to use. >> i thank the gentlewoman from wyoming. to follow-up on the chairman's point and to the point the ranking member is trying to make, we had two teams that in a public setting, general hamm said can respond within hours. i think the day -- that begs the question why the team went into tripoli, and it took almost 24 hours to get there. 24 hours. these people operate on just a few hours, and yet, it took them just -- it took them 24 hours. i think that begs the question. the other thing

mr. cummings to mr. asking him to delay a republican-only delegation to libya so that democrats could join the delegation as well. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcgovern: in october of 2012, oversight committee republicans went on a delegation to libya, but they did not inform democratic members until 24 hours after they departed. in september, 2013, oversight committee republicans planned a second delegation to libya without contacting democratic members at all. ranking member cummings requested that the trip be postponed to allow democrats to join, but his request was denied. this is no way to conduct a serious investigation, and this is one of the reasons why so many people on our side of the -- cried cried f foul. so before the house grants any new authorities to the select committee, i'll be grateful for any assurance from my chairman that this authority will not be misused in the highly partisan manner demonstrated by chairman issa at the oversight committee. and i yie

mr. cummings: mr. speaker, i -- mr. davis: mr. speaker, i raise a point of order because the resolution violates section al budget e congress act. the resolution contains a waiver of all points of order against consideration of the bill which includes a waiver of section 425 of the congressional budget act which causes a violation of section 426-a. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois makes a point of order that the resolution violates section 426-a of the congressional budget act of 1974. the gentleman has met the threshold burden under the rule and the gentleman from illinois and a member opposed each will control 10 minutes of debate on the question of consideration. following debate, the chair will put the question of consideration as the statutory means of disposing of the point of order. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois. mr. davis: thank you, mr. speaker. point of order not only out of concern for unfunded mandates, but to highlight the failure of republican house leadership to protect the lon

mr. cummings, would you yield for question?'m trying to understand -- all he units you mentioned were headed to tripoli. none were headed to benghazi. you know that, right? when it comes to what was done for the people dying in benghazi, none of them were going to help them. they were not activated for the people dying in benghazi. >> i asked him what i wanted to ask him. he was very clear, and i appreciate it. >> thank you. we now go to the gentlelady from wyoming. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield such portion of my time as he wishes to use. >> i thank the gentlewoman from wyoming. to follow-up on the chairman's point and to the point the ranking member is trying to make, we had two teams that in a public setting, general hamm said can respond within hours. i think the day -- that begs the question why the team went into tripoli, and it took almost 24 hours to get there. 4 hours. these people operate on just a few hours, and yet, it took them just -- it took them 24 hours. i think that begs the question. the other thing is

mr. marcus received his ba in magna cum laude from brown university and jd from columbia law school. he was editor of the columbia law review. welcome. our next witness, mr. matthew polka, is president of the american cable association and 850 member nonprofit

mr. compa cummings and i look forward to working with him and the congressmen. gop leaders haveec mroited the deaths of those killed in benghazi. have you changed your opinion now that leader pelosi has put in place some key members of congress there to defend as they put it, democrats? >> first of all, let me say that we acknowledge all of our fallen this memorial weekend and we will certainly look to fix this veterans crisis. many of us will be at our veterans' hospitals this weekend, but let me say with respect to benghazi, i stand by my statement of monumental waste and waste of time, but i do believe that the leadership, strong negotiation and making it very clear that republicans don't intend to be fair, transparent or fair was important for the american people. our leader, nancy pelosi was right in negotiating with the speaker to make it an even committee to make it the same numbers that the republicans have and that's the way the house ethics committee is constructed and it is the senate ethics committee and they didn't do that. there are seven that are

mr. cohen received his ba from software college and his j.d. summa cumlvania boston. welcome, mr. cohen. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. >> i'm going to actually introduce all of the witnesses and i should have told the panel that. our second witness is mr. robert marcus comiskey of time warner cable. mr. marcus as i said as the is e chairman and ceo and he served in a capacity since january 1 of this year. mr. marcus first joined time warner in 2005, and since that time he served in various capacities including president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer and senior executive vice president. prior to joining time warner cable, he held hearings and positions at time warner inc. including senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions. before joining time warner, mr. marcus practiced law. mr. marcus received his ba magna cum laude from brown university and his j.d. from columbia law school where he was harlem fifth stone scholar and editor of the columbia law review. welcome to hugh mr. marcus. our next witness mr. matthew polka as

mr. chuang received his j.d. magna cum laude from march vard law school and his b.a. summa cum laude. he gang his legal career for judge dorothy w. nelson on the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit from 199 to 1995. tbr 1995 to 1998, mr. chuang served in the civil rights division of the united states department of juvment. he served as an assistant united states attorney in the district of mass ma. served as deputy chief investigative counsel for the united states house committee on oversight and government reform from 2007 to 2009. in 2009 he became the chief investigatorrive counsel for the united states committee on energy and commerce in the house of representatives. mr. yhuang serves as deputy chief counsel of the united states department of homeland security where he has worked sings 2009. like mr. hazel, mr. chuang has devoted his entire professional career to serving the public. he is very much interested in helping his community and again that's the type of individual i would hope that we would all like to see on our district court. mr. chuang has extensive li

mr. marcus received his ba in magna cum laude from brown university and jd from columbia law school. he was editor of the columbia law review. welcome. our next witness, mr. matthew polka, is president of the american cable association and 850 member nonprofit associations whose members serve subscribers in small rural markets. prior to joining the association, he was vice president and general counsel for star cable so see its. -- associates. he received his jd from pacific -- pittsburgh university school of law. he was recipient of the law school's most distinguished graduate award. welcome. our next waste this -- witness of columbia law school. he is a law professor where his research examines the balance between innovation and competition set i antitrust law, it intellectual property, and other forms of regulation. from 2011-2012, he served as chief of the antitrust bureau in the office of new york state attorney general. before joining columbia's faculty, he served as a law clerk. on the u.s. court of appeals for the seventh circuit. and to justice scalia on the supreme court. he

it prompted democrat elijah cummings to say, quote, i think the speaker has lost of issa. mr. trying to interject himself into the select committee's business. it undermines the select committee. dana, your take. have they lost control of issa? >> well, issa has clearly gone rogue here. and he has this case of subpoena envy that trey gowdy is now the guy everybody is watching. he's saying no, wait for me. i can still create a whole mess of this benghazi thing. but if john kerry is irritated about being ordered twice now to appear before darrell issa's committee, the one who should be really irritated is trey gowdy. look, if you republicans in the house want to drag the secretary of state up there for something that happened long before he took office, you can go ahead and do that, but you're only going to get one bite of this apple so they would be very fair in saying no to the other committee. now, elijah cummings is going to be the ranking democrat on both committees. that shows democrats have confidence in their guy here. and the republicans are quite split on how they're g

cummings. first to the va, i want tosehin house came out, president came out and made people angrier about the lack of action. >> this is a very urgent matter. and i think by sending mr. neighbors over there, the president did the right thing. we know him from congress used to work with us, a can do, straighten it out type person. but this is got to have -- what the presidency calls the urgency of now. when we're dealing with veterans, they've given their blood and life and tears and some of these horror stories we've heard about, i can tell you up on hill it is truly bipartisan, the concern. and certainly the concern is bipartisan with regard to our constituents. i think that if it cannot be resolved quickly, the president has to make some tough decisions. >> let me ask you about nabors, he's highly regarded and arriving right now in the va hospital in phoenix. is he the right person to take this on because of a possible conflict of interest. this is shinseki last week testifying about his connection to rob nabors, let's watch. >> a proven performer who brings management experience to this task and i welcome his assistance. i've known the nabors family for a long ti

mr. cummings: ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland has requested the yeas and nays. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, the the yeas and nays are ordered members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule 20, this is a 15-minute vote on the motion to refer. it will be followed by five-minute votes on the motion to recommit, if offered and will be followed by house adoption of 574 and adoption of house resolution 564. the present vote is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this motion, the ayes are 191 votes, the nays are 220 votes. the motion is not adopted. the question is on the a