Congressman Al Green Exposes Effort by Republican Leadership to Obstruct and Obfuscate for Political Gain

(Washington, D.C.)—On Thursday, September 8, 2016, Congressman Al Green (TX-09), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee released the following statement regarding the hearing entitled ‘Fueling Terror: The Dangers of Ransom Payments to Iran.’ Congressman Al Green and Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (CA-43) walked out of the hearing before its conclusion, leaving no Democrats present, to protest the political motivations of the proceedings.

“Today’s hearing represents another chapter in the ongoing saga of carefully crafted efforts by Republican leadership to obstruct and obfuscate for the ultimate purpose of undermining the Obama Administration.  The effect of their plan is to portray the Obama Administration as not responsibly governing our nation and being morally culpable for terrorism abroad. This is evident in the very title of the hearing ‘Fueling Terror: The Dangers of Ransom Payments to Iran.’ A clever piece of messaging and effective talking point, but also completely and utterly false. Today, I would like to resurrect the truth.

“The truth is that this hearing is part of an effort that had its genesis when President Obama was first elected. It is not often acknowledged publicly, though it has been reported on by the Public Broadcasting Service and by numerous other news agencies. The PBS program ‘Frontline’ reported on January 15, 2013 that Republican leaders during a secret meeting at a restaurant, the night of President Obama’s inauguration, ‘decided they needed to fight Obama on everything. The new President had no idea what the Republicans were planning.’

“It is apparent to me that from that day forward, Republican leadership, including some people who are on this committee, were committed to obstructing and obfuscating everything the President proposes or does. We but only have to examine the evidence to see the truth: We had Americans held prisoners in Iran returned home through a negotiated prisoner swap by the Obama Administration. One would think that the President would be saluted. However, we are here today in an attempt by some on the other side of the aisle to sully any appearance of a success by President Obama. Further, this is far from an isolated incident: they are doing this with Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which they would eliminate; they are doing this with Obamacare, which they would eviscerate; they are doing this with the Export-Import Bank, which they did temporarily eliminate; they are doing this with the budget of our nation, which they would obfuscate; they are even doing this with a Supreme Court nominee, whose nomination they would terminate.

“To this point, I call on my Republican colleagues to abandon the politics of obstruction and obfuscation, which was so evident in today’s hearing, and work with the Obama Administration rather than continue seeking to undermine it.”