Barbara Lee Demands Info on Bush Iran Plans
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) last night introduced a privileged resolution calling on the White House to turn over to Congress any information related to administration plans for regime change or attack against Iran.
“You don’t need to look further than Iraq to see that the Bush administration’s dangerous doctrine of preemption is a failure that we cannot afford to repeat with Iran,” said Lee. “Congress has neglected its oversight of this failed policy, and now that the drumbeat for war is starting with Iran we must force a debate on this issue.”
Lee’s Resolution of Inquiry, H.Res. 846, calls on the Bush administration to provide Congress with all information “relating to strategies and plans either designed to cause regime change in or for the use of military force against Iran.”
A Resolution of Inquiry is a privileged resolution, which means that if it is not acted on by the committee to which it is referred within 14 legislative days of its being introduced, the member of Congress who introduced it is entitled to request that it be brought to the House floor for a vote. Lee and other Democrats have used the resolutions as a procedural tool to force debate at the committee level on issues like Iraq, where Republicans have avoided exercising Congressional oversight.
###