Perhaps if my colleagues had taken a more active approach to resolving their concerns, we would have avoided this situation in which additional capabilities were needed to respond to the elevated threat this emergency situation that has been posted by iran. Mr. Speaker, there has long been a consensus in this body that irans malign activities in the middle east are a threat to the United States national security. And to our partners. In the past three years alone, we have passed legislation responding to irans support for terrorism, growing Ballistic Missile arsenal, and human rights abuses. The Iranian Regime has not backed down from these malign activities and it is my sincere hope that this body will not back down from its resolve to counter irans destabilizing agenda. Unfortunately this resolution and the other joint resolutions of disapproval for the 22 sales are very much a step in the wrong direction. And with that, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new york is recognized. Mr. Engel i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from new york reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from florida is recognized. Mr. Mast mr. Speaker, i would like to yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from texas, mr. Taylor. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Taylor thank you, mr. Speaker. From its inception the Islamic Republic of iran had an antiamerican vent. What it did to our embassy, attack on the marines in beirut in 1983, its efforts in iraq in 2003 i was part of the invasion force. I saw with my own eyes the iranian efforts to destabilize iraq and continue to do that today. They continue to support the assad regime in syria. They continue to overthrow the regime in yemen where the Houthi Rebels attack saudi arabia. Around the middle east iran has become the enemy of freedom and democracy. If americas going to succeed, we need to have allies. We need to have friends. We need to support those allies and those friends. Making sure that saudi arabia and u. A. E. Have the weapons they need to fight back against irans terrorism is Mission Critical for the survival of our republic. I stand against this resolution. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas yields back the bam of his time. The gentleman from florida reserves. P the gentleman from new york. Mr. Engel i reserve for the purpose of closing. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from florida is recognized. Mr. Mast i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from florida yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from new york is recognized. Mr. Engel mr. Speaker, i yield myself the remainder of my time to close debate on this measure. Im glad we have had a spirited debate on the issues. As always im grateful to my friend, the Ranking Member, mr. Mccaul of texas, for his collegiality. We are againly bipartisan on the Foreign Affairs committee and when we generally are bipartisan on the Foreign Affairs committee, and when we do its the issues. I have enormous respect for mr. Mast which he knows about. And but i would say that this today is not a referendum on iran. I agree with everything that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said about iran. Its bad intentions, bad behavior. I agree. But again i say as i said before, it doesnt mean we give another country be it an ally or not, a blank check to do whatever it pleases. In this particular case the conduct of the war in yemen is just something that we cannot just turn our heads away and say oh, well, this is the war, and the iranians are bad so therefore we are going to look the other way. If we are talking about american weapons, we can demand better. So i think that these measures are a chance for the congress to take back some of the power granted by the constitution. To say that we wont stand by when any administration, this administration, administrations to come in both parties. We wont stand by with any administration ignores congress, plays fast and loose with the law, and fails to demand accountability for human rights abuses around the world. I encourage all my colleagues to support this measure and the two others that we have just considered. I thank mr. Mast and my friends on the other side of the aisle for a spirited debate. I thank the speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore all time for debate has expired. The previous question is ordered on the joint resolution. The question is on the third reading of the joint resolution. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. Third reading. The clerk providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed export to the kingdom of saudi arabia and the United StatesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of certain defense articles and services. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the passage of the joint resolution. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The joint resolution is passed. Without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. The gentleman from florida. Mr. Mast i request the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from florida has requested the yeas and nays. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. Mr. Cummings by direction of the committee on oversight and form, i call up house report 116125. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title. The clerk resolution recommending that the house of representatives find william p. Barr, attorney general of the United States, and wilbur l. Ross jr. , secretary of commerce, in contempt of congress for refusal to comply with subpoenas duly issued by the committee on versight and reform. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 491, the report is considered as read. For what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition . H. Res. Ngs i call up 497, and ask for its immediate consideration. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the resolution. The clerk House Resolution 497, resolution recommending that the house of representatives find william p. Barr, attorney general of the United States, and wilbur l. Ross jr. , secretary of commerce in contempt of congress for refusal to comply with subpoenas duell issued by the committee on oversight and reform. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 491, the resolution is considered as read and shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on oversight and reform. The gentleman from maryland, mr. Cummings, and the gentleman from kentucky, mr. Comer, each will control 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. Mr. Cummings thank you very much, madam speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and to heir remarks insert extraneous material. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Cummings madam chairman, i yield myself five minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Cummings thank you very much. Madam speaker, i support this ipartisan resolution to hold attorney general william barr and commerce secretary wilbur ross in contempt of congress because it is necessary to preserve the integrity of this body and of the census. The constitution mandates that we conduct a census every 10 years. And that the census count every erson, a full, fair, and accurate account is critical to ensuring that we properly allocate federal funding and congressional apportionment. I do not take this decision lightly. Holding any secretary in criminal contempt of congress is serious and sober matter. One that i have done everything in my power to avoid. But in the case of the attorney general and the secretary, secretary ross, they blatantly obstructed our ability to do congressional oversight into the real reason secretary ross was trying for the first time in 70 a rs, in 70 years to add Citizenship Question to the 2020 census. Secretary ross testified under oath that he added a citizenship estion, and i quote, solely, wants to concentrate on that word, solely to help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights act. We now know that claim was nothing but a pretext. Do not take my word for that, madam speaker. The Supreme Court said that. Our committees investigation uncovered evidence that secretary ross launched a secret campaign to add the Citizenship Question within days of assuming his post. We learned that secretary ross ignored warnings from experts inside and outside the Census Bureau. Including the bureaus chief scientist that adding a Citizenship Question would be costly and harm the accuracy of the census. In other words, they were saying if you do this, youre not going to have an accurate census. Our investigation also revealed that secretary ross spoke with attorney general sessions, steve nnon, and chris, contrary to his testimony to the congress, the Commerce Department conjured up the Voting Rights rationale to hide these interactions. This entire congress should be insulted by this. Committee democrats first asked for documents from the department of commerce and department of justice when we were in the minority in april and may of 2018. Both departments ignored us. When i became chairman i renewed these requests on behalf of the committee. Since then the administration has engaged in a purposeful effort to obstruct, and i do not use that word lightly, our investigation. The departments have refused to provide key unredacted documents that we need to understand the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about why they really made this decision. Instead, what did they do . They produced thousands of pages that were largely nonresponsive. Eavily redacted. Or publicly already available. When they let us interview witnesses, what did they do . They ordered the witnesses not to answer more than 500 of our questions. Secretary ross even refused my request to meet to try and work this out. Like i said, i do not come to this floor lightly. This is not an easy decision, but there comes to a time when the Congress Must speak up for the congress. I grant myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Cummings as a result, on april 2, more than three months ago, after a bipartisan vote, the committee subpoenaed these key documents, including a secret memo that the department of commerce wrote about the Citizenship Question and gave to the department of justice. The departments have admitted to us that this memo does exist , but they refuse to produce this document and many others. Now, i must say in all credit give credit where credit is due. My good friend and colleague on the other side, mr. Meadows, worked tirelessly to try to help us get the things that we needed, and i appreciate that. Trying to work in a bipartisan way. Going on from there, last month, in light of this obstruction, the Oversight Committee passed a resolution to hold attorney general barr and secretary ross in contempt of congress. The vote was also bipartisan. However, many of our republican colleagues apparently support the president s dministrations refusal to comply with duly authorized congressional subpoenas. Now, let me say to my colleagues, we need to be clear at we as a body have a constitutional duty to be a check on the executive branch. Thats our job. Every two years we swear to uphold the constitution of the United States of america. Thats our that is what we are supposed to do. So my colleagues claim we were interfering with the Supreme Courts decision on this issue. That argument never did make any sense to me. Since we launched our investigation in 2018, more than 10 months before the Supreme Court took up the case, but even if you accept that misguided argument, the supreme. Urt case is now over that argument is gone. The president announced last week that he would no longer pursue adding a Citizenship Question to the census. However, in that same speech, the president admitted that he wanted citizenship data to implement partisan gerrymandering. The president s statements directly contradict secretary ross sworn testimony that the only reason, the sole reason the Trump Administration wanted the data was to help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights act. The departments of justice and commerce have been engaged in a campaign to subvert our laws and the process congress put in place to maintain the integrity of the census. I will say to all of our members, lets be very careful on what we do with regard to the census. It has a tremendous impact for 10 years on how federal funds, more than 660 billion is appropriated over and over again. Apportionment, redistricting, and making sure that every american gets their fair share ack of their taxpayer dollars, people king money who make money for our taxes. The resolution thats before us today is about protecting our democracy. About t about it is protecting the integrity of this body. Its bigger than the census. Its about protecting the integrity of the congress of the United States of america. We need to understand how and why the Trump Administration tried to add a question based on pretext so we can consider reforms to ensure this never happens again. There are those who are asked the question why would the Supreme Court, having decided what they decided and why do you want the documents . We wanted documents because we want to make sure that we do not, in the future, spend a year, a year and a half chasing something that is not accurate. In the words of the Supreme Court, a pretext, delaying our process of getting an accurate account, which is exactly what the constitution says we must do. So i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support our resolution, to hold attorney general barr and secretary ross in contempt of the congress of the United States of america. And with that, madam speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from kentucky. Mr. Comer madam chair, i rise to claim time in opposition and i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Comer we are here debating a premature and illadvised resolution to hold attorney general william barr and secretary commerce wilbur ross in contempt of congress. In the eyes of the current majority their crime is, not cooperating enough with the democrats investigation into the reinstatement of the Citizenship Question on the 2020 census. First, this contempt citation is a misuse of one of the most powerful tools available to this body. Second, the idea that the Trump Administration is stonewalling this investigation or even, in chairman cummings words, engaged in a coverup from the top, is simply wrong. The bottom line is, the department of justice and the department of commerce are cooperating with the investigation in the reinstitution of the Citizenship Question in the 2020 census. The administration has produced a total of 31,000 of pages of documents to the committee, 14,000 pages from the Commerce Department, and 17,000 pages from the Justice Department. The committee had heard testimony from six witnesses with more interviews expected this month. Secretary ross himself testified for over six hours about his decision to reinstate the Citizenship Question on the census. What the real issue we should be debating is why the democrats are afraid to ask how many lets remember, just one month ago the Supreme Court ruled asking a Citizenship Question on the census is constitutional. Since the Supreme Court ruling, the president has said a Citizenship Question wont be in the 2020 census. To put away doubt on the 2020 census and all future censuses, i introduced a bill last night to add a Citizenship Question to the 2020 census. My bill is intended to put away all doubt about asking a Citizenship Question on this and future censuses. If the democrats cant impeach President Trump, they will instead hold his cabinet in contempt of congress. This is just another episode in political theater. This exercise is not a responsible use of the contempt authority. This is just another attempt for the democrats to delegitimize the efforts t