[House Report 109-689]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
109th Congress Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session 109-689
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DIRECTING THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO PROVIDE TO THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES CERTAIN DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE SECRETARY OF
STATE RELATING TO THE REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON JULY 28,
2006, PURSUANT TO THE IRAN AND SYRIA NONPROLIFERATION ACT
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September 27, 2006.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be
printed
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Mr. Hyde, from the Committee on International Relations, submitted the
following
R E P O R T
together with
ADDITIONAL VIEWS
[To accompany H. Res. 985]
The Committee on International Relations, to whom was
referred the resolution (H. Res. 985) directing the Secretary
of State to provide to the House of Representatives certain
documents in the possession of the Secretary of State relating
to the report submitted to the Committee on International
Relations of the House of Representatives on July 28, 2006,
pursuant to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act, having
considered the same, reports thereon without recommendation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Purpose and Summary.............................................. 2
Background and Need for the Legislation.......................... 2
Hearings......................................................... 2
Committee Consideration.......................................... 2
Committee Oversight Findings..................................... 2
Constitutional Authority Statement............................... 3
Additional Views................................................. 5
Purpose and Summary
House Resolution 985 directs the Secretary of State to
provide to the House of Representatives certain documents in
the possession of the Secretary relating to the report
submitted to the House International Relations Committee on
July 28, 2006, pursuant to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation
Act.
Background and Need for the Legislation
House Resolution 985 is a resolution of inquiry, which
pursuant to Rule XXIII, clause 7 of the Rules of the House of
Representatives, directs the Committee to act on the resolution
within 14 legislative days or a privileged motion to discharge
the Committee is in order. H. Res. 985 was introduced and
referred to the Committee on International Relations on
September 7, 2006. The Committee held markup sessions on
September 13, 2006 and ordered H. Res. 985 reported by voice
vote without recommendation.
Under the Rules and Precedents of the House, a resolution
of inquiry is one of the methods used by the House to obtain
information from the executive branch. According to Deschler's
Procedure it is a ``simple resolution making a direct request
or demand of the President or the head of an executive
department to furnish the House of Representatives with
specific factual information in the possession of the executive
branch.'' \1\
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\1\ Deschler's Precedents, H. Doc. No. 94-661, 94th Cong., 2d
Sess., vol. 7, ch. 24, section 8.
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On September 7, 2006, Mr. Berman of California introduced
H. Res. 985. The resolution seeks all documents in the
Secretary of State's possession relating to the report
submitted to the House International Relations Committee on
July 28, 2006, pursuant to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation
Act.\2\
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\2\ H. Res. 985, 109th Cong. (September 7, 2006).
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The State Department and the International Relations
Committee are currently negotiating the release to the
International Relations Committee of documents within the scope
of the resolution of inquiry. In recognition of these ongoing
discussions, the Committee voted to report H. Res. 985 without
recommendation.
Hearings
The Committee did not hold hearings on H. Res. 985.
Committee Consideration
On September 13, 2006, the Full Committee marked up H. Res.
985, pursuant to notice, in open session and agreed to a motion
to report the resolution without recommendation to the House by
a voice vote.
Committee Oversight Findings
The Committee held no oversight activities under clause
2(b)(1) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives.
Constitutional Authority Statement
Pursuant to clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, the Committee finds the authority for
this resolution in article I, section 1 of the Constitution.
Additional Views
This resolution of inquiry--which I introduced with Mr.
Delahunt--directs the Secretary of State to provide information
to Congress regarding the recent release of a semi-annual
report required by the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
Let me provide a little background on why we are doing
this.
On July 20, Rep. Rohrabacher held a hearing in the
Oversight and Investigations subcommittee on U.S.
nonproliferation goals and strategies.
At that hearing, Acting Assistant Secretary for
Nonproliferation Frank Record--a former staff member of this
committee--testified that he ``didn't recall'' if the long
overdue report would include information about any Indian
entities.
When the report was submitted to the Committee only a week
later--with information about two Indian firms proliferating to
Iran, and just two days after the vote on the India nuclear
deal--it seemed hard for me to believe that Mr. Record hadn't
known about this and that the timing was purely coincidental.
So on July 28, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Delahunt and I sent a
letter to Secretary Rice expressing concern about Mr. Record's
testimony and requesting a detailed briefing on why this report
wasn't shared with members prior to the vote.
For five weeks we didn't receive a response.
It was only after my staff told the State Department I was
considering this resolution of inquiry that we finally received
a written response on September 7.
Unfortunately, the response was totally inadequate, and
State indicated no interest in accommodating our reasonable
bipartisan request for a briefing, so our only recourse was to
introduce this resolution.
It wasn't until the morning of the markup at which we
considered this resolution that I received a call from
Undersecretary Nick Burns, who provided his perspective on why
the report was submitted late.
I like Mr. Burns, and believe he's a very good diplomat,
but in this case my approach is the same as former President
Ronald Reagan--``trust but verify.''
Even if the report had come to Congress before the vote on
the India nuclear bill, I don't think it would have changed my
vote in favor of that legislation.
But the information about the Indian entities was very
relevant to the debate--particularly the motion to recommit,
which would have conditioned civilian nuclear cooperation on
India's support for U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from
developing nuclear weapons.
At the end of the day, this really isn't about the
specifics of the India legislation.
This is a much larger issue--the right of this Committee,
and the Congress as a whole, to receive all relevant
information when considering an extremely important piece of
legislation with serious implications for U.S. foreign policy
and national security.
Howard L. Berman.