Dear Mr. Chairman:
We are writing to request that you immediately withdraw your misguided new policy on minority witness requests. This policy was conveyed by your staff via email for the first time on May 25, 2011. The email states:
It is the policy of the Committee, once the weekly schedule is officially posted, for the Minority to have 24 hours to recommend their witness for the hearing(s) posted. If there is an Administration witness then that witness is the designated minority witness. It is up to the Chairman to accept an additional witness but that witness must be recommended within the 24 hour period.
This unprecedented new policy undermines the integrity of our Committee by impairing the ability of minority Members to participate in its important work. No previous Chairman of this Committee has ever issued such an extreme edict, and we are aware of no other House or Senate Committee with a similar policy.
We have two fundamental objections. First, it should go without saying, but minority witness requests, by definition, are requested by the minority. Obviously, you are not in the minority, so if you invite an individual to testify, that person is not appearing at the request of the minority. If we have not requested an Administration witness, you may not “designate" an Administration official you invite as a minority witness, unless you are willing to allow the minority to withdraw that invitation as well.
We will reserve the right to request witnesses of our choosing, including individuals who we believe have the ability to enhance the understanding of Committee Members and provide perspectives that are not otherwise represented by the witnesses you invite. As ranking members, we have and will continue to submit minority witness requests to our respective Chairmen, and only those individuals identified and requested as minority witnesses should be considered as such.
Our second objection is to your new 24-hour rule, which you do not appear to be applying even to your own witnesses. During this Congress, you have complied with the minimum requirements necessary under our Committee rules by providing only a single week’s notice prior to Committee hearings. These notices have included nothing more than the title of hearings, with no witnesses identified. It is fundamentally absurd to demand that we identify minority witnesses before you have identified witnesses yourself, yet your new policy does just that.
Apart from these specific objections, we are concerned about the direction of your overall approach. Rather than increasing bipartisan cooperation, as you pledged to do many times, you have adopted this new policy without identifying any legitimate basis or need for it. This leads to the unfortunate conclusion that you are more interested in holding hearings to advance your own personal political agenda rather than objectively gathering facts from a variety of sources to improve public policy.
When you were in the minority in 2007, you said this: “In a Democracy whose lifeblood is fueled by the market place of ideas, Committee practices that stifle or preclude full debate should be avoided at all cost." We urge you to heed those words and immediately abandon this unfair and unreasonable policy.
Sincerely,
