Resolution of Inquiry – Sounds Boring But It’s Important

The following article was posted on the TrumpAccountable.org website February 23, 2017:

President Trump, accompanied by Vice President Pence, center, shakes hands with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday at a Republican congressional retreat. (Matt Rourke/AP)

The House leadership has signaled that they intend to bury a Resolution of Inquiry introduced by Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House Judiciary Committee so it can’t come to a vote in the full House. Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) will likely let the resolution die. The relevant facts are:

  • The Resolution Of Inquiry directs “the Department of Justice to provide the House of Representatives with any and all information relevant to an inquiry into President Trump and his associates’ conflicts of interest, ethical violations—including the Emoluments Clause—and Russia ties.”
  • While these kinds of resolutions are rare, Nadler and his Democratic colleagues feel that the unprecedented conflicts of interest surrounding the administration demand greater scrutiny and the House Oversight Committee has not exerted much effort to investigate issues that many Americans are concerned about. “Republicans have shown zero willingness to follow through on their duty to conduct oversight,” according to Nadler, “and they must be held accountable if they are truly willing to abdicate this constitutional obligation and must be made to answer to the American people for that failure.”
  • Make no mistake: “accountable to the American people” is an enormous issue. By sending the Resolution of Inquiry to committee to die members of the House will not have to go on record and won’t be accountable for lax oversight of Trump’s actions and conflicts.

Here are two things that we can do to encourage Congress to hold Donald Trump accountable:

  1. Call your members of Congress to encourage them to allow the Resolution of Inquiry to come to a full vote in the House. The American people deserve to know which members of Congress are “abdicating this constitutional obligation.”
  2. Speaker Ryan and Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee need to be held accountable for killing this resolution. If you are reading this piece and are a constituent of one of these committee members, then please call or write TODAY demanding they allow the resolution to come to a full vote in the House.
  • Bob Goodlatte, Virginia, Chairman
  • Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin
  • Lamar S. Smith, Texas
  • Steve Chabot, Ohio
  • Darrell Issa, California
  • Steve King, Iowa
  • Trent Franks, Arizona
  • Louie Gohmert, Texas
  • Jim Jordan, Ohio
  • Ted Poe, Texas
  • Jason Chaffetz, Utah
  • Tom Marino, Pennsylvania
  • Trey Gowdy, South Carolina
  • Raúl Labrador, Idaho
  • Blake Farenthold, Texas
  • Doug Collins, Georgia
  • Ron DeSantis, Florida
  • Ken Buck, Colorado
  • John Ratcliffe, Texas
  • Mike Bishop, Michigan
  • Martha Roby, Alabama
  • Matt Gaetz, Florida
  • Mike Johnson, Louisiana
  • Andy Biggs, Arizona

It’s important that Americans know where their elected representatives stand on the issue of holding Donald Trump accountable.