Skip to main content

Dems Produce More Subpoenas Than Bills Signed into Law

October 23, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) urged Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to return to the American people's business and abandon Democrats' secretive, partisan impeachment process during today's colloquy on the House Floor. Specifically, Whip Scalise stressed the fact that House Democrats have produced more subpoenas aimed at President Trump and his team (56 in total) than House bills signed into law (46 in total). Again, House Democrats have produced more subpoenas than statutes. While bipartisan legislative priorities like USMCA, prescription drug pricing solutions, and action on the humanitarian crisis at our southern border go nowhere, Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff devote more and more committee time and resources to this secret impeachment inquiry. The American people deserve solutions, not subpoenas.

See highlights from the colloquy below.

On the ineffective House Democrat Majority:

Image removed.
Click here or on the image above to watch the clip


"But you talk about all of those things that are going on right now with impeachment. The real issue is it's not happening, here, in this Congress. And I'll refer you to a different newspaper, as you want to talk about newspapers. The front page of The Washington Times: 'Democrats writing more subpoenas than laws, impeachment inquiry sidelines Pelosi's agenda.' And so, in fact, if you look at the difference between subpoenas and bills that came out of this House that are actually signed into law, you've produced 56 subpoenas — you've only produced 46 laws. That's twenty percent more subpoenas that you've produced than laws to help people across this country."

...

"I would be happy to yield when we talk about all of the things that this House could be doing that it's not, like lowering drug prices, like getting better trade deals with our friends in Mexico and in Canada, and in all the other countries that are lined up that would love to come behind USMCA that can't right now. They can't because there's this infatuation with impeachment in a one-sided way, in a closed way, in a Soviet-style star chamber. But that's what's happening right now. [Bills being signed into law] is what's not happening, [issuing subpoenas] is what's happening. It's not what the American people expected out of this majority."


On more than 200 Million Americans not being represented in the Democrat impeachment scheme:

Image removed.
Click here or on the image above to watch the clip


"Do you know if you take the voting Members of Congress who are not allowed in that room, it represents over 230 million American citizens who are denied representation in those impeachment hearings.? Over 230 million Americans who are denied access because 75 percent of voting Members of Congress are not allowed in the room. So you could talk about who's allowed in the room; everybody should be allowed in the room. The press should be allowed in the room, cameras should be in the room like in previous impeachments if you want to try to remove a President. Maybe you don't agree with the 2016 election results, and you're concerned about what might happen next year — that's not why you impeach a President by the way — but if you really do want to search for the truth, you search for the truth in public. The people of this country ought to be able to see what's happening. It shouldn't be a selected story in the newspaper."

On the outrageousness that the only way some Members can learn about impeachment is in the press:

Image removed.
Click here or on the image above to watch the clip

"...The sad part is the only way you can find out what happens in those secret hearings is reading the [newspaper]. Because somebody on the majority staff is leaking, against the direction of the Chairman, selectively leaking information to the press. The press knows more about this impeachment inquiry than voting Members of Congress. Seventy-five percent of this Congress is denied access to those hearings — seventy-five percent. Now maybe you can read what was leaked by somebody on your majority staff, Mr. Speaker, maybe that's where you can get your information because that's the only place to get information. That shouldn't be where Members of Congress have to go to find out what happened."

On the unfair impeachment process:
Image removed.
Click here or on the image above to watch the clip

"These hearings are going on in secret, in a secret room. A number of my colleagues and I went down to see what was going on, to see the hearings and the proceedings, turned out, what we found out in the SCIF — which is designed for classified briefings — it wasn't a classified briefing. The Chairman himself acknowledged that it was not a classified briefing. In fact, it included a Department of Defense official and members of the Armed Services Committee asked if they could be able to participate in that hearing and they were denied the ability.

"And so when the press can't see what's going on, when the public can't see what's going on, when Members of Congress try to see what's going on and the Chairman takes the witness and runs out of the room — it begs the question, what are they trying to hide? What kind of tainted document are they creating if it is an impeachment inquiry? And if it's not then stop trying to use two different sets of rules. But if it is, and the Speaker herself is the one who said it is an impeachment inquiry — at a minimum the same standards that have always been used for that serious of a process.

"The House of Representatives has a constitutional ability to ultimately make this kind of decision, and again, it's only been done three times. But in each of those cases there were fair sets of rules used so that you could actually find out what was happening and if there was something that reached the level of high crimes and misdemeanors — not based on what one person decided but based on everybody being able to present the evidence, everybody being able to bring witnesses forward. And that's not happening right now and it ought to change.

"And I would hope and ask the gentleman if this is going to continue moving forward and if there's going to be any credibility to whatever report would come out of it? There is much less credibility if it's done in secret with one person and one person only getting to choose who comes forth to testify, as opposed to an open process as has always been the case in our country's history."

On if the House is actually in an impeachment inquiry:
Image removed.
Click here or on the image above to watch the clip

"Again, I ask the question I asked last week — are we currently in an impeachment inquiry, as the Speaker said we are a few weeks ago?"

Hoyer: "I will respond as I responded last week. We are doing our constitutional duty of oversight of the administration and the actions of the President of the United States to determine whether or not there have been violations of law."