WASHINGTON – Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), today sent a pair of letters condemning the State Department’s decision to provide thousands of pages of documents to Republicans in response to inquiries seeking to smear President Trump’s political rivals while ignoring requests from Democrats on critical national security matters, and calling on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to respond to a growing list of unanswered requests on key policy and national security issues.
Menendez’s letters come in the wake of Senate Republicans ratcheting up politically-motivated requests aimed at aiding President Trump’s election year prospects, and following an angry missive from the Secretary last week attacking the Senator for pursuing legitimate congressional oversight into his conduct and the President’s corrosive foreign policy agenda.
In his letter to Secretary Pompeo, the Senator welcomed the Secretary’s call to engage “on an intellectual level an on the merits” on foreign policy issues, noting that he had been asking questions of the Secretary for months about some of the most serious foreign policy and national security issues facing the nation and the world.
“As our country’s shining light as the beacon of freedom and democracy continues to dim under this administration, it would behoove our standing in the world and strengthen our own democratic fabric if the nation’s leading diplomat would engage on these and other issues,” wrote Menendez.
Citing then-Congressman Pompeo’s penchant for being perceived as a guardian of Congressional oversight during his years in the House of Representatives, Menendez rejected the notion that for President Trump and Secretary Pompeo to have a successful national security agenda, it must be so at the expense of our systems of checks and balances.
Menendez also reiterated his open invitation for the Secretary to begin showing up to Congress to defend the Trump Administration’s foreign policy failures, and concluded with a representative, non-exhaustive list of more than 60 requests for which the State Department owes Congress information, and about which Secretary Pompeo has yet to testify.
In the letter to Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun, Menendez seeks a justification for why the State Department decided to produce thousands of pages to Republicans who are running an election-year investigation into President Trump’s political opponents but have stonewalled Democratic requests seeking details on matters of national security, including the President’s withholding of security assistance for Ukraine that aids its defense against Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
“This Department’s track record on transparency and responsiveness is already at the lowest point I have encountered in my near three decades in Congress. These actions threaten to degrade the Department’s reputation and signal that it is willing to be weaponized to further the President’s political, not policy, agenda. It should go without saying that the State Department should remain above this fray,” wrote Menendez to Biegun.
A copy of the Senator’s letter to Secretary Pompeo can be found HERE and below
A copy of the Senator’s letter to Deputy Secretary Biegun can be found HERE and below.
Secretary Pompeo,
In your May 28 letter to me you “implore[d] [me] and [my] staff to confront foreign policy issues of concern and interest to [me] and [my] constituents on an intellectual level and on the merits.” Thank you for this invitation; as you well know, I have been seeking to do exactly that for the duration of your tenure.
Indeed, for months, I have asked, repeatedly, questions about some of the most serious foreign policy and national security issues facing our nation and the world. I have asked those questions of you personally, of senior officials at the Department, and through my staff to various appropriate officials in the Administration. Despite the pressing nature of some of these concerns—including the Administration’s early response to COVID-19; the basis for withdrawing funding to the WHO; the ongoing commitment to global health priorities; the deporting of individuals from our country with COVID-19; the justification for additional arms sales to Saudi Arabia; the grounds for dismissing an independent Inspector General; details about agreements with third countries on asylees and refugees—my requests for substantive engagement on critical matters of foreign policy have gone largely ignored or woefully unaddressed.
You also note that your “job is to lead an organization focused on the execution of President Trump’s foreign policy priorities on behalf of the United States.” I would argue that part of that job is to explain to the American people—and their elected representatives in Congress—exactly what those priorities are.
I understand that Chairman Risch, with my full support, has been trying to get you to testify in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since February, including by appearing remotely, on the budget request for the State Department. Additionally, given that we are currently facing a global pandemic that threatens some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, witnessing increased tension with China, and instability that threatens U.S. interests across the world, there are any number of topics that would normally trigger a Secretary of State testifying before Congress. Moreover, you have only publicly appeared in front of this Committee three times; the last time being April 10, 2019. Again, I would welcome you to come testify on any topic of your choosing.
Indeed, when you were yourself a member of Congress, you extolled Congressional oversight as a critical function of this country. In March 2014, you stated that our system of checks and balances, including Congress, “is the best [system] devised by humankind for a way to provide oversight on a country’s incredibly important intelligence operations.”[1] Surely the same logic would apply to our foreign policy operations. In March 2016, you told a newspaper that the State Department “ought” to “respond to a legitimate inquiry from the legislative branch, duly authorized by statute and cooperate.”[2] I could not agree more.
As our country’s shining light as the beacon of freedom and democracy continues to dim under this Administration, it would behoove our standing in the world and strengthen our own democratic fabric if the nation’s leading diplomat would engage on these and other issues.
In the spirit of your request, below is a representative, non-exhaustive list of requests I have sent over the last year on foreign policy matters of grave concern to me and my constituents, to which the State Department has failed to respond to fully or at all and about which you have yet to come to Congress to testify. I look forward to your prompt engagement on these matters, and to having you testify before the Committee in short order.
Outstanding Requests regarding U.S. Foreign Policy:
Outstanding Requests regarding State Department Management and Operations:
Deputy Secretary Biegun:
I write to express my deep disappointment and disgust at the State Department’s selective response to Congress on what appears to be purely political grounds.
Under this administration, the Department has stonewalled all documents from Democratic members of Congress related to the withholding of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, even defying lawful subpoenas. It has not provided any documents about the shameful early removal of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, a decision that allowed foreign influence to infect our national security. Nor did it produce information about how the Department came to possess and disseminate a packet of foreign disinformation aimed at undermining U.S. policy and discrediting a U.S. ambassador.
On September 24, 2019, I requested records that would shed light on why the executive branch stalled congressionally-appropriated funds to an ally fighting Russian aggression. On September 27, 2019, I sought information about what the Department knew about foreign attempts to seek Ambassador Yovanovitch’s removal. On October 10, 2019, I requested information about steps the Department took to protect that U.S. ambassador.
I have received no response to these requests. None.
Yet, even as these and other requests about urgent national security and foreign policy concerns were ignored for months, the Department found it appropriate to prioritize and produce thousands of pages of Ukraine-related documents to the Republican Chairmen of other Senate Committees.
Worse, these requests seek information designed to advance false conspiracy theories, including that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. President Vladimir Putin has gleefully pushed this theory—a theory that President Trump’s homeland security advisor called “debunked” and his former Russia Director on the National Security Council warned was a “fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
The administration has also argued that its response to the global pandemic means congressional requests have to take a temporary back seat. Yet, in early April, it eagerly produced additional documents to Republican Committee Chairmen that have no bearing on current national security priorities, and zero relevance to the pandemic.
In recent weeks, Republican Committee Chairmen with little or no jurisdiction over the Department have made other requests to the Department, which seek information that is similarly irrelevant to U.S. national security. If the Department expends taxpayer resources on these unprincipled requests, it would be serving only the partisan purposes of congressional Republicans, not U.S. policy or U.S. taxpayers. And it would only further amplify the very Russian disinformation campaigns that have plagued the nation over the last four years.
This Department’s track record on transparency and responsiveness is already at the lowest point I have encountered in my nearly three decades in Congress. These actions threaten to degrade the Department’s reputation and signal that it is willing to be weaponized to further the President’s political, not policy, agenda. It should go without saying that the State Department should remain above this fray. And if the Department sees it appropriate to send thousands of pages to other Committees, it should, at a minimum, also provide them to the primary Committee of jurisdiction.
The oversight role of Congress is not a perfunctory responsibility subject to the whims of executive branch agencies. It is a constitutionally-vested authority that Congress must uphold with the utmost gravity. I know that you understand the importance of the executive branch’s responsibility to respond to and engage with Congress in good faith and for the public interest, and I look forward to hearing how you plan to do so.
I have attached my still-outstanding requests. I look forward to promptly receiving a response to them, as well as the complete set of documents previously provided to other Senate Committees on Ukraine.
Sincerely
Robert Menendez
Ranking Member
Enclosed:
Letter to Secretary Pompeo requesting information and documents regarding the withholding of security assistance to Ukraine, September 24, 2019
Letter to Secretary Pompeo requesting information related to the Trump-Zelensky phone call and related issues, September 27, 2019
Letter to Secretary Pompeo regarding the dismissal of Ambassador Yovanovitch, October 10, 2019
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