Good morning. Pursuant to notice on september 9, 2020, the Committee Meets to consider a motion to authorize issue to certain subpoenas and note the presence of a quorum. Were here today for two reasons, first to overcome a ridiculous assertion by the Ranking Member regarding Committee Subpoena rules and while were at it, vote on subpoena authority for seven additional individuals based on new information, second to the nominations for the retirement thrift Investment Board. Recording the committee rules, senator peters has an objection. According to senator peters when the committee was on june 4th that did not include authority to schedule any depositions. Rather than raise this issue internally which would have been the proper procedure, the committee not any one member is the arbiter of our rules, senator peters immediately conveyed that objection to a witness who cited it as an excuse to ignore a Committee Subpoena. And the witness encouraged to ignore a subpoena is jonathan winer, played a key role of submitting the dossier to members of the state department and further related to the fbi. One of only two witnesses who refused to cooperate with the Inspector Generals review. I decide today issue mr. Weiner a subpoena, contrary to the assertions of Ranking Member peters, those concerned turned out to be well founded. As senator grassley noted in our september 2019 letter, mr. Winer used his personal email to conduct officially government business. And the day before mr. Peters encouraged him to ignore subpoena, the committee on intelligence reveals that mr. Winer admitted not only to destroying all the correspondents from christopher steele, but quote, essentially every email, unquote, from his tenure at the state department. This is the individual that senator peters apparently does not want our committee to interview. This is by no means the only inappropriate meddling by the minority in our investigations. The most recent example was a letter in classified addendum created by senior democrat leaders accusing mr. Grassley and me of relying on foreign disinformation this quote, intelligence product, unquote of false aleses was allegations was produced and leaked to the press before senator grassley or i had access to it. And the media reports had hot tips. Use today repeat, distort and embellish the false charges. This coordinated smear, thats all you can refer it to it as, coordinated smear culminated in the august 7th opinion piece in the Washington Post by Richard Blumenthal. John radcliff director of national intelligence, i can confirm that they did not create the addendum to the july 13th letter nor his creation. The icu was not con ult issed and the release to the entire membership of the u. S. House of representatives and referring to that classified addendum. He said it boy no means reflects the complete analysis. We were falsely accused of receiving and utilizing comes from ukrainian name andre durkach. And neither senator grassley or i ever saw it, received or used any information from him. The moo media continued to report otherwise for weeks despite our repeated and unequivocal denials, but it is true that a chart produced by by him is now part of this Investigatory Committee not because me or senator grassley did it, but because senator peters staff introduced it to the record. The only foreign disinformation used to interfere in this investigation is introduced by democrats not republicans. Given the excompressed concern over foreign disinformation, were not heard the same concern that the steele dossier contained russian disinformation. We are aware of this fact because my chief counsel uncovered it buried in four classified footnotes to the department of justice, Inspector General fisa report and we know the fbi was aware of this as early as august of 2016. Again, the fbi knew that russia disinformation was part of the steele dossier as early as august of 2016 and yet, they continued the investigation, and we end up with a special counsel. We also know that the steele dossier was bought and paid for by the dnc and the clinton campaign. So apparently, democrats are willing to look the other way when they pay for or use foreign disinformation against republicans. Senator Richard Blumenthal smear piece was headlined the threat to u. S. Elections is real and frightening. The about you believe has a right to know. I completely agree with the headline, but i utterly reject senator blumenthals false allegations as i clarified in my august 10th open letter which i now ask consent to the record. Hearing no objection, so ordered. I hope everyone takes the time for the 10page letter that lays out of purpose, history and goals of our oversight. I can assure you, if you do, all learn a lot. And a vote on senator peters and unlawful subpoenas. And as senator blumenthals headline declares, the people have a right to know. Focused on revealing the truth and democrats seem to frustrate and interfere. This relies on u. S. Documents, u. S. Persons, theres no russian disinformation other than that was entered by senator peters staff. Based on obstructive behavior, one has to wonder, why are the democrats so afraid of the truth. Senator peters. Thank you, mr. Chairman. This is the our third business meeting on a very partisan investigation. Yet, we continue to face an unprecedented Public Health and economic emergency. Almost 200,000 americans have died during this pandemic and nearly 40 million americans have lost their jobs. Im disappointed that our committee is once again meeting to discuss the authorization of subpoenas instead, i say again, instead of the serious challenges facing americans and your committee has a responsibility to address with our full focus and resources. Today were voting on an unprecedented 40 subpoenas to further the chairmans investigations into a crossfire hurricane and the unmasking of Lieutenant General flynns name. These investigations are substantially identical to multiple previous investigations, including those by other committees of congress with direct jurisdiction, the extensive work of the Justice DepartmentInspector General and the durham investigation. Your own public comments, mr. Chairman, state that your desire to reinvestigate these matters demonstrates the alarming partisan nature of this investigation, that is designed to influence the president ial election, which is now only 48 days away. As i said in june, issuing subpoenas should be a last resort, particularly when individuals on this list are either already cooperating or have not been given the opportunity for voluntary compliance. In june, this committee authorized subpoenas for 33 people. In the last three months, none of these people have been interviewed on the subject matter of those subpoenas. Yet, you now seek authority to depose seven new individuals on the same matters. This is a partisan fishing expedition. At our organizing business meeting, mr. Chairman, you made a commitment to maintain the longstanding tradition of this committee in its pursuit of conducting serious oversight in a nonpartisan way. Now at a moment of national emergency, its most important that we speak with one voice. Mr. Chairman, im asking you to stop the inappropriate use of our Committee Resources and recommit to our primary focus, which is safeguarding homeland security. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator peters. I think what we have Committee Members here id like to move on to the nomination votes, although we noticed the john gibbs for personal management, were going to hold over because some members would like Additional Information from the nominee. And well continue with the nominations. Do any member wish to discussion nominations before we vote . If not the question on reporting mr. John barger, of the retirement thrift Investment Board, i believe this is a required or requested role call vote. So the clerk call the roll. [clerk calling roll] [clerk calling roll] [clerk calling roll] mr. Chairman, mr. Chairman. Senator peters. Its come to my attention that senator sinema would be recorded as a yes. Okay. Mr. Chairman on the vote of those presence the yeas 8 and nays 3 by approximately, yeas 1, and this vote the report to nominee is agreed to. So the nomination is reported favorably. If theres no objection the committee will vote on the two remaining thrift Investment Board and the question is reporting Christopher Burnham and frank dunleavy. All those in favor, aye, opposed. Nay. The yeas have it favorably. Issue notice for depositions subpoenas for records and testimony described as items one, two, three of schedule a. Does any member wish to debate the motion. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Peters . I would like to postpone until the members of the committee receive the underlying foreign documents to the unmasking of general flynn, and the debriefing of unmasking from the National Security agency. Mr. Chairman you asked the acting director of intelligence all information, and the acting director did not, however, give you the foreign Intelligence Reports that led to requests to unmask a person who turned out to be Lieutenant General flynn, nor did he give you any finished intelligence projects, drukts products that used these reports. The documents will likely show the requests to unmask were not politically motivated, but intelligence needs. If this is true, we can avoid hauling people in on depositions in this investigation. And a briefing from nsa so we can understand how the unmasking process works, including who has the authority to request unmasking, what scrutiny is involved in deciding whether to unmask is name in an Intelligence Report and who has the authority to view these unmasked names. Understanding the process will provide context about how and why unmasking is an important part of intelligence and investigations and we should start with the basics before moving directly to subpoenas. Thank you, senator peters. I think youre well aware you one of the first team scheduled for introduce, patrick conlin, and the whole purpose is for him to describe unmasking. The motion is in order to postpone and is not debatable. Clerk call the roll. [clerk calling roll] [clerk calling roll] mr. Chairman on vote of those present the yeas are 3, nays are 8. On vote by proxy, yeas 3, nays 0. On vote, yeas 6, nays and its not agreed to. One more, mr. Chairman. Mr. Peters. For each of your investigations i move that the committee publicly release Interview Transcripts in full at the same time as you release your report, with all appropriate redactions to protect our National Security interest. I certainly believe and i believe you said earlier that the American People deserve to see the complete record and reach their own conclusion, so, id like to make that motion. As we discussed with your step, thats my full intention, barring, classified sections or, you know, potentially objections from attorneys, which we agreed to as well, we intend to do that. So we can have a voice vote . Need a voice vote on it . Yes, id request. Okay, so the motion has been raised, is there a second . Does is the roll call vote required . If not all those in favor say aaye, nay, the motion carried. If theres no further debate the questions on motion to authorize the chairman to issue the notices and subpoenas as described in item one, two, three in schedule a, the clerk will call the roll. [clark calling roll] [clerk calling roll]. [clerk calling roll] mr. Chairman on the vote of those present yeas 8, nays 3. The vote by approximately yeas 0, nays 3. On this vote yeas 8, nays 6. The motion is agreed to. Thank you all for your attendance, this biz meeting is adjourned mr. Chairman. Senator rosen. May i make remarks, please . Sure. You can close them if you want to take them after the meeting is closed, thats fine. Thats thank you. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member peters, i oppose mr. Barger to be with the thrift Investment Board the americans people deserve transparency under the originals. Mr. Barger is on the gored of governor and played a role in i appointing louis dejoy ahead of the Postal Service in mid june. Shortly after, americans reported nationwide delays in mail delivery due to operational changes at usps. Last month, postmaster general louis dejoy testified before this committee about the mail slowdowns that his recent changes caused. I asked mr. Dejoy to provide the committee with any transcripts or minutes of all closed, nonpublic board of governors meetings from this year so that the American People could better understand the rationale behind decisions hurt with the mail, hurting our seniors, our veterans, Rural Communities and various others. The postmaster general has yet to describe to my request which Ranking Member peters and i followed up in writing. At his nomination hearing, i asked mr. Barger to provide the same transcripts or minutes from any closed door, nonpublic meetings from this year. He said he would raise the issue with the board and yet to comply with my request which again i followed up in writing. Mr. Bargers written response cited the need to predict pre decisional and dlib deliberative information. With the retirement thrift Investment Board, i expect transparency and so do the American People. Due to the lack of compliance with my several attempts to help my constituents better understand the Decision Making process at the Postal Service that has adversely impacted their lives and the lives of so many americans, mr. Chairman, i cannot support this nominee. Thank you, senator rosen. Is there any senator romney. [inaudible] thank you. And and one, of course, is ill call it the Biden Barisma had the earmarks of a political exercise and im fearful comments in the media recent have only confirmed that perspective. Obvious its the province of campaigns and political parties, opposition research, the media to carry out political endeavors to learn about or dust up ones opponent, but its not the legitimate role of government for congress or for taxpayer expense to be used in an effort to damage political opponents. And therefore, i am pleased that our votes today do not include additional authorizations relating to, ill call it the Biden Barisma investigation. With regards to the crossfire hurricane investigation. I think its also important that because this has such obvious political implications that the committees investigation focus on the specific wrongdoing alleged by the Inspector Generals report. My vote today essentially is reaffirmation of the subpoena authorization that was already approved by this committee, with my support on june 4th. And i will continue that support as long as it does not fall into the realm of rank political undertaking. I do believe its very important that the committees of congress and ours in particular, not fall into an increasing pattern that were seeing, which is using taxpayer dollars and the power of congress to do political work. Thats the role of campaigns. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator romney. Senator scott . Mr. Chairman, i want to thank you for your efforts. Every time ive had a conversation with you about these investigations your focus is to get the truth out. Whatever the truth is make sure the American Public knows it, i want to thank you for your efforts. Appreciate the comments. Any other discussion . If not, this business meeting is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] youre watching cspan2, your unfiltered view of government. Created by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. The senate is about to return to consider more judicial nominations. There are votes on two nominees picked to serve on the u. S. District court in northern illinois. To date, the senate has confirmed 214 judges nominated by President Trump to lifetime appointments. Including 157 judges for u. S. District courts. And now, live to the senate floor. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, who makes us one, use our lawmakers today as agents of reconciliation. Give them the wisdom to build bridges that will enable Diverse People to accomplish your purposes on earth. Lord, inspire our senators with such oneness of spirit and resolve that they will provide our nation with a model of cooperation. Remind them of the wisdom of matthew 12 25,