Press Releases

We are a little over 85 hours from yet another Republican-induced government shutdown, which means our servicemembers work without pay and the nearly seven million women and children who count on nutrition assistance will have to go without.

All because, and I’m quoting Republican member of the House, Representative Cory Mills, “we allowed ourselves to basically get so distracted with all the other shiny objects that we didn’t actually get ahead of our real job, which is to be appropriators.”

Today is another distraction. A distraction from my colleagues’ inability to govern and from their inability to fund the government. Amid their chaos, they’ve failed to convince their own colleagues of the necessity of their political stunt, let alone the American people.

In the words of Congressman Ken Buck: “What’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son…Republicans in the House who are itching for an impeachment are relying on an imagined history.”

Congress is a legislative body. We are not a law enforcement entity. Thankfully, law enforcement wouldn’t run an investigation like this one.

Uncorroborated allegations were released to the American public. Only after did these Keystone Cops call additional witnesses to attempt to see a fuller picture, and those high-ranking IRS officials directly disputed the allegations.

The additional Republican witnesses disputed Shapley and Ziegler’s testimony, cutting right through my colleagues’ purported argument. There was no retaliation or political interference. Rather, it was these two supervisors who decided to remove Shapley back in December 2022 to protect the integrity of the case and to move it forward.

With no retaliation, I question this Committee’s role. Why waste precious time that could be put toward keeping the government open? Other than to distract from reality.

Even our own Chairman acknowledged the time crunch, and that today would take place “before funding runs out.” It’s not coincidental timing—Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said what everyone is thinking—“we very dysfunctional right now” and if don’t act now while the government is still open, who knows when they’ll have their next opportunity.

There is also the pressure to produce in time for the first hearing of their fact-free impeachment inquiry. Even the Oversight Chairman conceded that tomorrow is a media stunt. He said, “the hearing is not expected to cover new ground” but instead will “rehash” his debunked conspiracy theories. Repeating lies won’t make them facts, and the time they are spending “educat[ing] the Washington, D.C., press corps” won’t fund the government.

The Republican Party does seem to think it’s a sure-fire way to line their campaign coffers and curry favor with the former president, as evidenced by recent fundraising emails that I move to enter into the record. As I point of personal privilege, I never once sent a fundraising email or even raised a dollar off our work investigating the IRS’s handling of the former president’s taxes.

This work isn’t the will of the House. A vote to open an impeachment inquiry would have failed just as the two rule votes did earlier this month. It’s not the work of the governing party, and it certainly isn’t the work of the American people.

The documents under consideration today are cherry-picked and came to the Committee heavily redacted by Shapley and Ziegler. It’s an incomplete picture because the Majority hasn’t dared to request documents directly from agencies. Fully knowing that they have no legislative purpose. Instead, they are relying on a piecemeal transfer that I question is even legal.  

This Committee has no role here, and as the Wall Street Journal put it over the weekend, the American people don’t want an impeachment inquiry. It’s distracting Republicans from fixing their problems.

Millions of women and children are at risk of losing their food assistance because of my colleagues’ disinterest in governing. How are we supposed to tell our constituents that Fox News hits were more important than their next meal? Or what are we supposed to say to the 2.2 million American workers who may go without a paycheck when Republicans shutdown the government?

For this Republican majority, regardless of evidence, all roads lead to impeachment. It’s a sad day for the Congress and for the American people.

With that, I yield back.