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by Causes | 9.13.18

On a party-line, 23-18 vote the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday rejected an effort by Democrats to ask the White House & State Department to turn over all documents related to President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What happened?

Offered by Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), the resolution of inquiry would’ve requested that all relevant documents, communications, recordings, transcripts, summaries, notes, memos, and read-aheads used by President Trump before or at the Helsinki summit.
Boyle argued that the “secretive” nature of the Trump-Putin meeting “makes it all the more disturbing” and “jeopardizes Congress’ ability to oversee the executive branch” while raising further questions about Putin’s election meddling.
Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) said that while he “strongly disagreed with the president’s remarks in Helsinki”, this resolution “clearly intrudes into judicially recognized areas of executive privilege” and that “by constitutional design, we are not in the room for such discussions.”
All Republicans voted to report the resolution adversely, meaning the resolution shouldn’t be considered by the full House, while all Democrats opposed that motion. Republicans prevailed 23-18 to block the effort.

What’s a resolution of inquiry?

It’s a legislative procedure that House lawmakers can use to request documents from executive agencies. Once a resolution of inquiry has been introduced, the committee it’s referred to must address it within 14 legislative days (ie congressional work days) by reporting it favorably, rejecting it, or revising it. If the committee doesn’t act, the lawmaker who introduced it can ask that it be “discharged” (or pulled out of committee) and brought up for a vote before the House as a whole.

By rejecting a resolution of inquiry, the committee considering it isn’t necessarily saying that the subject of the inquiry is without merit or that the administration didn’t provide the requested information. It could mean that the committee received what it asked for and that what it got is enough to bring the administration in compliance with the request, meaning that further action was unnecessary.

Resolutions of inquiry are also given privileged status in the House, meaning that the House’s ordinary business can be interrupted so that they can be considered, although the House can still choose to give precedence to other matters through a majority vote.

Only the House has the ability to file a resolution of inquiry, as there’s no counterpart in the Senate’s parliamentary rules.

Tell your reps whether the Trump administration should hand over documents related to the Helsinki summit and share your thoughts below!

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / tupungato)

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