thank you, mr. gowdy. i was going to try to get some courage up to tell one of my stories about my partner who was killed in 1982. mr. reichert: i think i'm going to wait. gain my composure. and yield to mr. jolly from florida, who has led one of these special orders in the past in honor of police officers and is another staunch supporter of law enforcement across this great nation. i yield to mr. jolly. mr. jolly: i want to thank the sheriff. i want to associate myself, i know we all do, with our colleague, mr. gowdy's, remarks. this is personal for so many. mr. speaker, i rise today on behalf of the people of the state of florida who if they were here in this chamber tonight would also want to associate themselves with the gratitude that fills this well. gratitude to law enforcement officers who each day do risk their lives. they risk their own security. they risk the stability of their family, at and -- and at times they risk the security of their children. knowing the risk that is on the line every day.

it's my pleasure to yield time to mr. gowdy. mr. gowdy: thank you, sheriff. i want to thank you for your service to the country and to the great state of washinon. i want to thank judge poe, mr. speaker. i want to thank sheriff nugent and my friend and colleague from south carolina, joe wilson, who is the father of a prosecutor. mr. speaker, allen jacobs was going to be a father ain, but this time it was going to be a little bit different. he was already the father of two precious little boys, but he was going to be the father of a little girl. s wife, megan, and he were expecting a child this july and life had prepareofficer jacobs very well to be a father. he was an outstanding student, an athlete in greenville, south carolina, and he put that athleticism ad intelligence to work for our country in the united states army. he was deployed to iraq, mr. speaker, for 15 months. and he even volunteered to live in the nehborhoods of baghdad because he understood that all people want to live in a eaceful, secure environment. and after iraq, hwas deployed to haiti be

the chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina, mr. gowdy for five minutes. thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate your service in previous light and i must confess to you i was surprised and used the phrase political banter in your opening. it is not only surprised, i was disappointed. you seem to direct that tories are republicans. solicitor general not two weeks ago before the supreme court talk about the damage wreaked by the separation of families and he wasn't talking about joshua wilkinson family. he was talking about the families of people who were not here legally. it's not as on our side with sanctuary cities which is quintessentially a political analysis that we are going to allow state and local officials to decline to follow federal process, but at the same time we don't trust state and local cops enough to actually enforce immigration laws. that is a political calculus. that is not done by folks on our side of the aisle. my friend from maryland, mr. cummings went to great lengths to quote from episodically from a single republican secretary castro has come befo

. >> i now recognize the gentleman from south carolina, mr. gowdy. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i will be brief and then i will yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from florida. mr. chairman, i think we're probably all prisoners to a certain extent to our own personal experience, so while i'm open and interested of the experiences and expectations of others, i've never had a problem. and any of the airports i've ever traveled to. i use granville spartanburg. i use charlotte. i use dca. the folks are professional. my friend from florida mentioned that there may be some members of congress and perhaps other people who consider themselves to be dignitaries who either expect or accept preferential treatment. the members of congress that i travel with don't expect it and they wouldn't accept it if it were offered to them. a member of congress has a little bit of obligation herself or himself to say no, i'm going to stand in the line like just everybody else. i'm quite certain that your department can do better. i'm quite certain you have a plan to do better. i'm also quit

. >> i now recognize the gentleman from south carolina, mr. gowdy. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i will be brief and then i will yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from florida. mr. chairman, i think we're probably all prisoners to a certain extent, to our own personal experience, so while i'm open and interested of the experiences and expectations of others, i never had a problem. and any of the airports i've ever traveled to. i use charlotte, dca, the folks are professional. my friend from florida mentioned that maybe some members of congress and perhaps other people who consider themselves to be dignitaries who either expect or accept preferential treatment, the members of congress that i travel with don't expect it and they wouldn't accept it if it were offered to them. a member of congress has a little bit of obligation herself or himself to say no, i will stand in the line like everybody else. i'm quite certain that your department can do better. i'm quite certain you have a plan to do better. i'm also quite certain congress can do better. so i'm going to focus

. >> chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes the gentleman from south carolina mr. gowdy for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i was thinking to myself as chairman jordan was talking about the history, chronology of this investigation as these two witnesses well know, there were, what, about a half dozen offenses offered by irs throughout the course of the investigation, each of which collapsed under its own i will logic. it began with ohio who were blamed and personally my favorite defense was that the irs was too incompetent able to construct a scheme as sophisticated as this scheme was. then they moved from that defense to, yeah, but we also targeted progressives, so at lesion we were equal in our discrimination. my favorite, the one they settled on towards the end. yeah, but the president himself did not personally approve this targeting scheme. therefore, you don't need to look at it anymore. i know the next hearing is about the process -- koskinen mentioned due process in his opening statement that he didn't give to us. the next hearing is about what process

now recognize the gentleman from south carolina, mr. gowdy. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you for not only the panel that's before us, but the panel you tried to have before us. not only did ben rhodes not appear and cost us an opportunity to question mr. rhodes, it cost us the opportunity and the privilege to ask questions of our friend and colleague tommy cotton. speaking of constitutional crisis, hauling a united states senator before a committee of congress would really have created a constitutional crisis. so, good thing for us, tommy was willing to come on his own. and it would have -- the background contrast would have been been interesting to me. you know, the white house is very critical of senator cotton and has been for several months now. senator cotton, of course, when he was serving tours of duty in the united states army in afghanistan and iraq, ben rhodes was navigating the mean streets of a creative writing curriculum in his post -- i mean that literally. that is not figurative. he has a masters in creative writing. and if you're interested

trey gowdy: is mr. hannah here? jason chaffetz: yes. trey gowdy: well then why didn't mr. cummings ask him the questions? he'll have a chance to ask mr. hannah whatever questions he wants to ask him. we don't have a chance to ask mr. rhodes the questions we want ask because he didn't bother to show up. elijah cummings: would the chairman yield? trey gowdy: mr. hannah did. elijah cummings: will the chairman yield? jason chaffetz: yes, go ahead. elijah cummings: i can say whatever i want to say in my opening statement. trey gowdy: yes, you can, it just needs to be fair. elijah cummings: and i -- trey gowdy: that's my point. elijah cummings: well trey gowdy: just be fair about it. jason chaffetz: gent -- trey gowdy: you can say what you want. jason chaffetz: gentleman, gentleman, will state his inquiry. trey gowdy: i just want to know if he was here. elijah cummings: he's here. trey gowdy: well, tell me he is. jason chaffetz: thank the gentleman. trey gowdy: ok. jason chaffetz: and mr. rhodes is not here. i would also note that the democrats were free and usually, almost alwa

. >> and you know i heard my friend, mr. gowdy, from south carolina talk about he doesn't encounter much trouble. i traveled through st. louis, lambert field weekly. and it seems to have a shortage of employees, especially for the precheck line. probably 90% of the time that line is closed and each time staff gives me the excuse that they don't have enough personnel, enough security officers, to check people. so it is very stressful -- frustrating to my constituents who have paid the extra fee for precheck. is there a shortage of staff for airports like lambert? >> i think we have a shortage of staff across the system right now. we're moving people into the areas of greatest volume and greatest need. we are hiring back the people that have been slated to be traded out this year. and we have -- we're pushing out about 200 new officers every week. so what i'm hoping to do is build back a sufficient staff to meet the peak staffing that we need. we currently cannot staff effectively across the system to the peak volume periods. >> so,

my colleague, mr. gowdy pointed out he was a prosecutor for many years, there's really only two issues when you're setting bail -- danger to the community and probability of a flight risks. here's a guy that had exhibited not the probability but the certainty that he would be a flight risk and add to that he was an undocumented illegal immigrant. that's like walking into a court with a stamp on your forehead that says "i am a flight risk, incarcerate me at a very high bail." so i see -- i can see being mad at the judge, but it sounds like the prosecution didn't lay that out, according to the news reports. were you there for that? >> i was not. i don't know what was communicated. when he got his bond, we were burying my daughter, you know, so we didn't go to the pretile. i had spoke with officers swanson, both of them -- a lot of them officers i dealt with, day and night shift, and they took it real personal. they all did their job. to me and my family, whatever you do for a job, whether you're a judge, i.c.e

the chair recognizes mr. gowdy. >> not only did ben rhodes not appear and cost us an opportunity to question mr. rhodes, it cost us the opportunity and the privilege to ask questions of our friend and colleague tommy cotton, speaking of constitutional crisis. hauling a united states state senator before a committee of congress would have create adconstitutional crisis. good thing for us tommy was willing to come on his own. the background contrast would have been interesting to me. the white house is very critical of senator cotton and has been for several months now. senator cotton, of course, when he was serving tours of duty in the united states army in afghanistan and iraq, ben rhodes was navigating the mean streets of a creative writing curriculum and -- i mean that literally. that is not figurative. he has a masters in creative writing. if you're interested in writing haikus and sonnets and noviella he's probably the right guy. if you're advising the leader of the free world on foreign policy matters i don't

mr. gary: gowdy: they were about a half dozen offenses offered by the irs during the course of this investigation. it began with the two people in ohio. which was that the irs was to accompany it to construct such a scheme. police we were equal in our discrimination they said. notpresident himself did personally approve this targeting scheme therefore you don't need to look at it. about the next hearing is the process that has been mentioned. what the standard of proof? is it clear and convincing evidence? is it beyond a reasonable doubt? do the rules of evidence apply? can you use hearsay? impeachment is a penalty. that's exactly right. what congress really wants his access to the documents. you can't conduct an investigation if you don't have access to the witnesses in the since i have two experts here. did i hear correctly that incompetence is not an impeachable offense? i was believed that malfeasance in office or the failure to perform the duties of your office could be an impeachable offense. is that your understanding? >> it could be a factor. how can it confidence be a defense when the al

mrs. clinton is guilty of gross negligence. as just a fact. they just keep spinning this thing. i think trey gowdyand his organization is totally inept. they can't seem to get any information, and i think they are only interested in embarrassing mrs. clinton, and not bringing her to justice. i talked right all the time, because you on television. i said i would to meet tom and shake his hand. because they got he is there. -- thank god he is there. guest: small world. -- i can tell you how my folks for media organizations, including well-known media outlets admire judicial watch. envious in a positive way of boy, i wish we could get the documents you are able to get. i wish we could commit our investigative resources to force the administration to be more forthcoming and follow the law and release documents as they are supposed to. from congress's perspective, members on both sides of the ande admire judicial watch their ability to get things congress can't. speaker boehner is no longer speaker because members were tired of being shown up by judicial watch. obama'se going to stop lawless radical ag

mrs. clinton is guilty of gross negligence. as just a fact. they just keep spinning this thing. i think trey gowdyand his organization is totally inept. they can't seem to get any information, and i think they are only interested in embarrassing mrs. clinton, and not bringing her to justice. i talked right all the time, because you on television. i said i would to meet tom and shake his hand. because they got he is there. -- thank god he is there. guest: small world. -- i can tell you how my folks for media organizations, including well-known media outlets admire judicial watch. envious in a positive way of boy, i wish we could get the documents you are able to get. i wish we could commit our investigative resources to force the administration to be more forthcoming and follow the law and release documents as they are supposed to. from congress's perspective, members on both sides of the ande admire judicial watch their ability to get things congress can't. speaker boehner is no longer speaker because members were tired of being shown up by judicial watch. obama'se going to stop lawless radical ag

. >> you know i heard my friend, mr. gowdy from south carolina, he doesn't encounter much trouble. i travel through st. louis lambert field weekly. it seems to have a shortage of employees, especially for the precheck line. probably 90% of the time that line is closed and each time staff gives me the excuse they don't have enough personnel, enough security officers, to check people. so it is very frustrating to my constituents who have paid the extra fee for precheck. is there a shortage of staff for airports like lambert? >> we, i think we have a shortage of staff across the system right now. we're moving people into the areas of greatest volume and greatest need. we are hiring back the people that had been slated to be atrited out this year. we're push be out 200 new officers a week. i hope to meet the peak staffing that we need. we currently can not staff effectively across the system to the peak volume periods. >> so in your opinion was tsa screener workforce sized appropriately to handle increasing passenger volumes? >> i think the -- budgets were predicated on what was predic