'No Idea Why That Would Be Redacted': Johnson Calls For More Transparency In Fauci Communications

don't have a score on exactly what the grant programs would be contemplating here but whatever the cost would be i'm my amendment would just simply uh fund those from the unobligated funds for the american rescue plan it's pretty simple uh pretty simple amendment but while i have the floor here i do want to speak to another issue that i think is important to this committee this committee is the senate oversight committee when i was chair for for six years i know there was some support for investigations on my oversight sometimes there wasn't but when we have hearings on nominees we ask them a question whether or not they will comply with legitimate congressional oversight requests and they always say yes and that's also true of for example the help committee five senators uh from this committee uh sent letters to the nih in the cdc and then separately to the cdc and hhs and we invoked five usc 2954 which states that an executive agency on request of the canadian homeland security or any five members thereof shall shall submit any information requested of it relating to any matter within the jurisdiction of this committee now again this committee has broad oversight jurisdiction um we have not gotten those oversight letters responded to not not effectively not not in in a complete format um mr chairman i sent you a letter also signed by five senators uh requesting that you utilize this committee's power to compel the agencies to follow the law they shall supply the information now i just want to use one example a letter we sent to hhs secretary becerra requesting the unredacted emails from anthony fauci that were provided under four requests to a number of different outside groups we requested those same emails unredacted by the way congressional oversight is not subject to the redactions under foia we should have received those completely unredacted proof of the fact that the redactions are not valid uh i just have copies of of one of the emails this is a email from peter dasik dated april 218th and it's just thanking anthony fauci for basically covering for eco health alliance you can see in what was produced to the committee and employee request we have a big redaction here and now is redacted supposedly because it was related to an open law enforcement investigation we basically got the same 4 000 pages the five senators uh except on this one email they failed to redact that so now we know what's under the redaction let me just quickly read you what supposedly was related to an open law enforcement investigation it says it's been very a very hard few months as these conspiracy theorists have gradually become politicized and harden in their stance especially because the work we've been doing in collaboration with chinese virologists have given us incredible insight into the risks that these viruses represent so we can directly help protect our nation from bat origin coronaviruses we're fighting to keep the communications open with our chinese colleagues so that we can better under we can better address future pandemics like covet 19. i have no idea why that would be redacted in an oversight response to congress it i have no idea how that paragraph could be related to an open law enforcement investigation so i i won't go in i won't describe this any further other than to again make the point this law that we are invoking that required that tells the agencies they shall turn over this this information this is a hundred year law it's been modified two times most recent time in 1994 signed by bill clinton the supreme court has affirmed congress's need to have information to write effective legislation for too many years and again i i was i was the brunt of it for six years as chairman of this committee government agencies regardless regardless of the administration have thumbed their nose at congressional oversight they just simply refuse to comply so we end up being completely ineffective an incredibly important constitutional duty and responsibility of congress now again there is no reason they they have the emails all they have to do is provide them to the five senators have requested them in unredacted fashion by the way our other oversight request is the cdc regarding any contact between the teachers unions and cdc regarding their reopening of school guidance was that based on science was that based on political pressure i think the public has a right to know so again as the senate committee on oversight if we sit back and do nothing administrations in the future regardless whether they're republican or democrat whether democrats are in the majority in the senate or republicans are administrations will continue to ignore our oversight requests and we will not be able to fulfill our constitutional duty and responsibility to our constituents so i would hope that every member on this committee would join those five senators that join me and use this committee's power to subpoena those records to s say in a very strong unified unanimous voice congress will not be ignored our oversight responsibilities are important and we demand we insist that the administration provide us this information but mr chairman i'm asking that you work with me to prepare subpoena hopefully we don't even have to vote on it you have the power to issue it i would certainly hope that senator portman would not send a letter of disapproval but we can get this subpoena out forthwith and fulfill our constitutional responsibility to oversight thank you mr chairman thank you senator johnson and certainly i concur that we need to get information we need to do our job here as an oversight committee and make every effort to make sure we're getting information necessary to to conduct uh oversight uh and i'm happy to consider any request i'm happy to continue to work with you on this issue as well because i think it is something that we need to pursue but i'm going to note that you requested the documents under 5 usc section 2954 in december and the dc circuit court of appeals held that section 2950 for 2954 confer standing on a minority of members of the committee to obtain agency information but the court recognized that the statutory right conferred by section 2954 is entirely distinct from the committee's subpoena authority and use of uh subpoena is inconsistent uh with this authority that you're invoking that's my understanding of the law but we will i'm happy to continue to work again we can put pressure on the agency from you know using that statute or committee subpoena well so again the the way to affirm congressionals right to this information is for this committee to act separately from our request and support what we're trying to do here or if because if we don't administrations of the future can continue to thumb their nose and and we might as well close up shop from a standpoint of well oversight i mentioned senator i'm happy to work with you we're going to continue to work together on this i appreciate that that's

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

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Keywords: Sen. Ron Johnson, Dr. Anthony Fauci, COVID-19

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Length: 8min 44sec (524 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 04 2021