House Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Meeks Forces Vote to Compel Kushner, Witkoff, Rubio Testimonies

Washington, D.C. - Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement after forcing a vote to subpoena Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Secretary Marco Rubio to testify on the diplomacy that preceded Donald Trump's war in Iran:

"More than a year into this Congress and a month into this war, Chairman Mast has refused to hold a single public hearing with top administration officials on Iran. Not as 13 U.S. servicemembers were killed and more wounded, and not as the administration prepares to ask American taxpayers for $200 billion to fund a war that President Trump has no plan to end. Instead, House Republicans have denied the American people the opportunity to hear directly why Trump's diplomacy failed.

"Chairman Mast's belief that the committee doesn't need to hear from these witnesses only confirms what is now undeniable: this House Majority is acting as a rubber stamp for the Trump administration, more interested in shielding it from scrutiny than conducting oversight. If Republicans stand by this open-ended war, the administration's everchanging and conflicting rationale for launching it, and the higher costs it is imposing on American families, then they should gladly defend their position in public. Their refusal to do so speaks for itself."