mr. cummings: the gentleman reserves. the chair: the gentleman from alabama is recognized. >> i yield three minutes to the gentleman from georgia, mr. hice. the chair: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for three minutes. mr. hice: thank you, mr. speaker. i commend my colleague from alabama for introducing this legislation containing a number of bills from the oversight and government reform committee. h.r. 4361 contains several excellent provisions to increase transparency, to enhance oversight and restore good governance. one of the areas in particular of importance to me is language requiring the office of personnel management to submit to congress reports on the use of official time by federal employees. for those who are unfamiliar with official time, it's the practice by which federal employees are paid by taxpayers to conduct union business while on the clock instead of performing the normal activities and duties of the agency for which they work. official time allows federal employees who are with the unions

cummings. >> i'm going to yield two minutes of my 3.43 to mr. lynch. >> thank you, mr. director. we're talking about hacking. and so on this committee, we were very much interested in cyber security. and we review a lot of it major hacks that are going on. so just recently, and i would say in the last 18 months, we've had a major hack, february of 2016, at the department of homeland security and the fbi. we had a hacking group, the site intelligence group reported that a group called crackers with attitude had hacked 9,000 employees' data from the department of homeland security, including names, e-mail addresses, locations, telephone numbers. also 20,000 fbi workers. we had another hack, direct evidence, obviously, of those. another hack at opm of 4.2 million current and former federal government employees, their information had been stolen, including social security numbers, which are not redacted. we had irs in may 2015, millions -- i'm sorry, 200,000 attempted and 100,000 were successf successful. we had state department announced a breach of its computer systems after an inf

cummings. >> i yield three minutes to mr. lynch. >> thank you, mr. director. we're talking about hacking and so on this committee, we're very much interested in cybersecurity and we review a lot of the major hacks that are going on. so just recently, and i would say in the last 18 months, we've had a major hack, february of 2016 at the department of homeland security and the fbi. we had a hacking group, the site intelligence group reported that a group called crackers with attitude had hacked 9,000 employees' data from the department of homeland security, including names, e-mail addresses, locations, telephone numbers. also, 20,000 fbi workers. we had another hack, direct evidence, obviously, of those. another hack at opm of 4.2 million current and former federal government employees. their information had been stolen, including social security numbers, which are not redacted. we had irs in may 2015, millions -- no, i'm sorry, 200,000 attempted and 100,000 were successful. we had the state department announce a breach of their systems after it was forced to sh

i spoke with mr. cummings. we'll now recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. matthew, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, director comey, for showing up and your willingness to be transparent and answer a lot of unanswered questions. a few hours before this hearing started i went on to social media and asked people to submit questions. i have got over 500 questions. i don't think i will get to ask them all in five minutes but i'm sure you would be willing to answer them. one of the common things i came in here to ask which i think is not the right question, what is the difference between extremely careless and gross negligence. in the process of this hearing what i'm hearing you say it is that's not what your reluctance is based on. it is not based on the reluctance to profits cute by the way. reluctance to recommend prosecution or indictment is not based on parsing those words, it is based on your concern for this statute. with this, this statute, is that correct, from your opening statement? >> it's, it is broader than that actually.

>> there are a couple of issues in there, mr. cummings. the first, in terms of the upgrade later, again the emails we were concerned about were not those that were upgraded. i believe it's not just -- it's not unique to the state department but that seems to be fairly common when state department is processing a foia they upgrade things before they are released. so that's one subset, one bucket of emails and separate from the emails we're talking about, separate from the emails i believe director comey is talking about when he says there were 110, i believe. those were classified when they were created and sent and received. those weren't about being upgraded. i've heard the term retroactive classification. whatever you want to call it. that's being done with some emails. but the emails that were a concern, i believe, in this case, were the emails that were classified when they were born, essentially, when they were created. >> they were marked, right? >> other than those that you discussed with director comey. >> three. >> i know of none

mr. chairman, just one final thing and i'll yield to mr. cummings. we've got a political debate where a lot of these issues that are going to be -- that have been raised are going to be fought on the campaign. we've got secretary clinton who's going to have to defend what she did. she's acknowledged it was a mistake. we've got that great constitution scholar, of mr. trump, who's going to be making his case about why this was wrong. but that's politics. that's not really having anything to do with the independence of prosecutorial discretion. thank you, director comey. i yield whatever additional time i have to mr. cummings. >> i think the gentleman is going to yield back. i have spoken with mr. cummings. now recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. massey, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director comey, for showing up and your willingness to be transparency and answer a lot of unanswered questions. a few hours before this hearing started i went on to social media and asked people to submit questions. i've got over 500 quest

mr. chairman, just one final thing and i'll dwreyield to mr. cummings. we've got a political debate where a lot of these issues that have been raised will be fought in the campaign and we have secretary clinton who will have to defend what she did, she acknowledged it's a mistake. we have the great constitutional scholar mr. trump who will be making his case about why this is wrong. but that's politics. that's not really having anything to do with the independence of prosecutorial discretion. thank you, director comey. i yield whatever additional time i have to mr. cummings. >> i think the gentleman is going to yield back. i spoke with mr. cummings. ful we'll now recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. massie, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, director comey, for showing up and your willingness to be transparent and a lot of unanswered questions. few a few hours before this trial i went on social media and i asked people to ask questions and i'm sure you'll will being to answer them. one of the common themes that i came in h

i will have time for mr. cummings. repetitive cummings: i will yield to mr. lynch. tative lynch: we're talking about hacking. we review of the major hacks going on. just recently, last 18 months, februarymajor hack in 2016 of the department of homeland security and the fbi. we had a hacking group, the site intelligence group order that a group called crackers with attitude had hacked 9000 employees' data from the department of homeland security, including name, e-mail addresses, locations, telephone numbers. also 20,000 fbi workers. we had another hack, direct evidence obviously, of those. we had another hack of opm at 4.2 million current and federal employees. information had been stolen, increase of 3, including social security numbers, which were not redacted. attempted,000 100,000 successful. we had state department announcing a breach of its computer systems after infiltration forced temporary shutdown of the classification system. we have the u.s. postal service, 800,000 services, the white house, this is back in 2014, a washington post reporter's computer was

it is the intention of the committee -- i told mr. cummings that we would come back after votes. votes have been pushed back a bit. so what i would like to to is go into recess and then start with our second panel. committee stands in recess until five minutes from now. thank you again, director comey. >>> after the hearing wrapped up yesterday, the state department announced it would reopen the review of hillary clinton's private email address and how she handled classified material. the candidate will make a campaign stop with vice president joe biden in scranton, pennsylvania. we'll bring it to you live, noon eastern on c-span 2. >>> our road to the white house coverage continues live with the democratic party's platform committee in orlando today starting at 3:00 p.m. eastern and continuing tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern. members will debate the platform for this year's elections. live coverage on c-span, the c-span radio app and c-span.org. >> next up, "washington journal" is live, followed by the u.s. house that returns live at 9:00 a.m. eastern to debate a bill to combat o

mr. chairman, just one final thing and i'll yield to mr. cummings. we've got a political debate where a lot of these issues that are going to be -- that have been raised are going to be fought on the campaign. we've got secretary clinton who's going to have to defend what she did. she's acknowledged it was a mistake. we've got that great constitution scholar, of mr. trump, who's going to be making his case about why this was wrong. but that's politics. that's not really having anything to do with the independence of prosecutorial discretion. thank you, director comey. i yield whatever additional time i have to mr. cummings. >> i think the gentleman is going to yield back. i have spoken with mr. cummings. now recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. massey, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director comey, for showing up and your willingness to be transparency and answer a lot of unanswered questions. a few hours before this hearing started i went on to social media and asked people to submit questions. i've got over 500 quest

mr. cummings, thanks for talking to us. some pretty sharp criticism from the fbi director about the way hillary clinton handled classified intelligence. do you have any concerns about the way she did handle classified intelligence? >> sure, i have concerns. and i'm sure that she has her own concerns. she's already admitted that she made a mistake. so -- but i think the more significant thing here is that this was an effort to -- i think -- to attack the fbi director, and again his reputation is impeccable and he was not shaken. he made it clear that he treated her like he would treat any jane doe. and he said that if he had treated her differently -- that is, if he had prosecuted -- recommended -- made a recommendation for prosecution, that that would have been a double standard against her. in other words, that he would have treated her wrongfully as opposed to a regular person. and he said that he doesn't go around trying to do celebrity indictments. and i think i was very pleased about his testimony. the other thing that

mr. chairman, just one final thing and i'll yield to mr. cummings. we've got a political debate where a lot of these issues that are going to be -- that have been raised are going to be fought on the campaign. we've got secretary clinton who's going to have to defend what she did. she's acknowledged it was a mistake. we've got that great constitution scholar, of mr. trump, who's going to be making his case about why this was wrong. but that's politics. that's not really having anything to do with the independence of prosecutorial discretion. thank you, director comey. i yield whatever additional time i have to mr. cummings. >> i think the gentleman is going to yield back. i have spoken with mr. cummings. now recognize the gentleman from kentucky, mr. massey, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director comey, for showing up and your willingness to be transparency and answer a lot of unanswered questions. a few hours before this hearing started i went on to social media and asked people to submit questions. i've got over 500 quest

mr. chairman, just one final thing and i'll yield to mr. cummings. we've got a political debate where a lot of these issues are going to be -- that have been raised are going to be fought on the campaign. we've got secretary clinton who is going to have to defend what she did. she acknowledged it's a mistake. we have the great constitutional scholar, mr. trump who is going to be making his case about why this was wrong. but that's politics. that's not really having anything to do with the independence of prosecutorial discretion. thank you director comey. i yield whatever additional time i have to mr. cummings. >> i think the gentleman is going to yield back. we'll now recognize the gentleman in kentucky, mr. massey for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you director comey for showing up and your willingness to answer a lot of unanswered questions. a few hours before this hearing started i went on social media to ask people to submit questions. i have over 500 questions. one of the common themes i came in here to ask that i realize is no

i recognize the ranking member, mr. cummings. >> thank you very much. director comey, i thank you very much for being here today. of especially on such short notice. you and your staff should be commended for the thorough and dedicated review you conducted. unfortunately, some of my colleagues are now attacking you personally, because your final recommendation conflicted with their preconceived political outcome in this case. some have tried to argue that this case is far worse than the case of general david petraeus. who was conduct convicted in 2015 for knowingly and intentionally compromising highly classified information. in fact, one very vocal politician we all know said this, and i quote. if he isn't decided, the only reason is the democrats are protecting her. she is being protected 100%, because you look at general petraeus, you look at all the other people that did a fraction of what she did, but she has much worse judgment than he had, and she's getting away with it, and it's unfair to him, end of quote. director comey, you were the director

cummings. >> let me go two minutes for my 3.43 to mr. lynch. >> thank you, mr. director. we are talking about hacking. and so on this committee we are very much interested in cyber security. we review a lot of major hacks that are going on. just recently i would say in the last 18 months we have had major hack february of 2016 at the department of homeland security and the fbi. we had a hacking group, the site intelligence group reported that a group called crackers with attitude had hacked 9,000 employees' data from the department of homeland security, including names, e-mail addresses, location, telephone numbers. also 20,000 fbi workers. we had another hack direct evidence obviously of those. another hack at opm of 4.2 million current and former federal government employees. their information had been stolen including social security numbers which are not redacted. we had irs in may 2015 200,000 attempted and 100,000 were successful. we had state department announced a breach of its computer systems after infiltration forced the agency to temporarily shut down its clas

i want to make sure we follow up on mr. cummings questions and requests and mr. linick, really and miss costello want to make sure we get that information about electronic records as it relates to videos and those types of things. again, i thank you for being here. it's been a good long day but fruitful and important work. the committee stands adjourned. >>> you can watch this hearing again on our website c-span.org along with director comey's announcement about hillary clinton's e-mail case on tuesday. it will air night on the c-span networks and again on sunday morning at 10:35 eastern on c-span. here's the hearing again as committee chair jason chaffetz, ranking member cummings make opening statements followed by member questions. >> committee on oversight and government reform will come to order. i want to thank director comey for being here and doing so on short notice. my -- i have the greatest admiration for the fbi. my grandfather was a career fbi agent. i'm here because we're mystified and confused by the fact pattern that you laid out and the conclusion

i recognize the ranking member mr. cummings. >> thank you very much. director comey, i would like to thank you for being here today especially on such a short notice. you and your staff should be commended for the thorough and dedicated review you conducted. unfortunately, some of my colleagues are now attacking you personally because your final recommendation conflicted with their preconceived political outcome in this case. some have tried to argue this case is far worse than the case of general david petraeus. who was convicted in 2015 of knowingly and intentionally compre micing highly classified information, in fact, one vocal politician we all know said this and i, quote, if he isn't indicted the only reason is because the democrats are protecting her. she is being protected 100% because you look at general petraeus, look at all the other people that did a fraction of what she did, but she has much worse judgment than he had, and she's getting away with it and it's unfair to him end of quote. director comey, you were the director of the fbi when

director comey, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. cummings, members. i'm proud to be here today representing the people of the fbi who did this investigation as they do all their work in a competent honest and independent way. i believe this investigation was conducted consistent with the highest traditions of the fbi. our folks did it in an apolitical and professional way, including our recommendation as to the appropriate resolution of this case. as i said in my statement on tuesday, i expect there will be significant public debate about this recommendation and i'm a big fan of transparency so i welcome the conversation we'll have today. i do think a whole lot of folks have questions about so why did we reach the conclusion we did and what was our thinking and i hope very much to get an opportunity to address that and explain it and i hope at the end of the day people can disagree, can agree, but they will at least understand that the decision was made and the recommendation was made, the way you would want it to be, by people who didn't give a hoot

director comey: thank you mr. chairman, mr. cummings and members of the community. i am proud to be here representing the people of the fbi who did this investigation as they do all their work in a competent and independent way. i believe the investigation was conducted consistent with the highest tradition of the fbi. politicaldid it in a political way. in my statement i said there would be significant public debate in this decision. whole lot of folks have questions about how we reach the conclusion we did and what is our thinking. i hope to get an opportunity to explain that. or disagree,sagree but they will at least understand the recommendation was made the way you wanted it to be, not about politics but about what is the law. say a few words that would help frame how we think about this. there are two things that matter in a criminal investigation of a subject. what did the person do, and when they did that, what were they thinking. thehundred years plus of at theent's search mishandling of classified information. what did they do and did they know they were d

i will have equal time for mr. cummings. repetitive cummings: i will yield to mr. lynch. representative lynch: we're talking about hacking. we review a lot of the major hacks going on. just recently, last 18 months, we had a major hack in february 2016 of the department of homeland security and the fbi. we had a hacking group, the site intelligence group order that a group called crackers with attitude had hacked 9000 employees' data from the department of homeland security, including name, e-mail addresses, locations, telephone numbers. also 20,000 fbi workers. we had another hack, direct evidence obviously, of those. we had another hack of opm at 4.2 million current and federal employees. information had been stolen, including social security numbers, which were not redacted. we had 200,000 attempted, 100,000 successful. we had state department announcing a breach of its computer systems after infiltration forced temporary shutdown of the classification system. we have the u.s. postal service, 800,000. the white house, this is back in 2014, a "washington post" reporter'

[applause] mr. cummings: thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you, governor. mayor franklin, to the distinguished members of the democratic platform committee, as i was standing back there i was thinking to myself about all that has happened over the last few days in minnesota, baton rouge, and dallas. and i couldn't help but think about a sign that when i got here, we were running a little late. when i got here, governor, the first thing i saw on the table back there was a sign that said, love trumps hate. we need to, we need to put that in the d.n.a. of every cell of our brains, particularly at this moment. and it reminded me of something else. and that is that, ladies and gentlemen, and i saw this, and i want us to keep focus on this. we can spend a lot of time concentrating on who we're fighting against. but ladies and gentlemen, the people in america want us to concentrate on what we are fighting for. what we are fighting for. [applause] today i'm proud as a public servant, i've not always felt this way, i've seen things in the congre

now recogniz member, mr. cummings. >> director comey, thank you for being here today. i want to begin by commending you and the public servants at the fbi for the independent investigation you conducted. you had a thankless task. no matter what recommendation you made, you were sure to be criticized. there's no question that you were extremely thorough. in fact, some may even say you went too far in your investigation. but, of course, that was your job. that is your job. secretary clinton has acknowledged that she made a mistake in using a personal e-mail account. and you explained on tuesday that she and her colleagues at the state department were extremely careless with their e-mails. but after conducting this exhaustive review, you determined that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case based on this evidence. and you and the career staff recommended against prosecution. based on the previous cases you examined, if prosecutors had gone forward, they would have been holding the secretary to a different standard from everyone else. amazingly, amazingly, some repub

. >> mr. cummings. >> i've been sitting here listening to this. this is something that bothered me in the lois lernor case and it bothers me in this case. ms. lawrence had talked about this. the chilling effect of your having to come here and justify your decisions. and i know that you've been really nice and you've just explained why you did what you did and i'm glad you're doing it. but, you know, do you at all, and i mean, taking off -- i'm just talking about, here you've got people making decisions, and then being pulled here in the congress to then say, okay, to be questioned about the decisions. at what point -- or do you even think about it becoming a chilling effect? because most people, you know, when their decision is made don't get this kind of opportunity, as you well know. there are no statements. you know, they either get indicted or they're not. i know you see this as a special case. i'm wondering whether you agree with ms. lawrence that we may be just going down a slippery slope. that's all i want to ask. >> my honest answer is, i

i recognize the ranking member mr. cummings. >> director comey, thank you for being here today. i want to begin by commending you and the public servants at the fbi for the independent investigation you conducted. you had a thankless task. no matter what recommendation you made, you were sure to be criticized. there is no question that you were extremely thorough. in fact, some may even say you went too far in your investigation. but of course that was your job, that is your job. secretary clinton has acknowledged that she made a mistake in using a personal e-mail account. and you explained on tuesday that she and her colleagues at the state department were extremely careless with their e-mails. but after conducting this exhaustive review, you determine that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case based on this evidence. and you and the career staff recommended against prosecution. based on the previous cases you examined, if prosecutors had gone forward, they would have been holding the secretary to a different standard from everyone else. amazingly, amazingly some republic

mr. webb: hi. i'm wellington webb, the former mayor of denver, colorado. an at-large member of the rules committee and a longtime supporter of hillary clinton. [applause] yesterday, i was proud to take part of the establishment of the unity reform commission which was formed in collaboration between the clinton campaign and the sanders campaign and the dnc. the commission is made up of representatives from both campaigns and the democratic national committee. assessing andwith improving our party's presidential nominating process. oncifically focusing in superdelegates, caucuses and strategies for opening up our system even more. the commission will set up a set of recommendations for the dnc rules and the bylaws committee 1, 2018.than january takenquate action is not within six months, the commission will present those recommendations before the full democratic national committee. you thehare with primary season brought to light some issues we need to address as a democratic family. that

we should mention the first questioner was a democrat, mr. cummings. peter barnes is live in d.c. with the latest on this. he did catch heat from both sides but particularly from republicans. go ahead, peter. >> that's right, david. over the issue of the possible double standard in the recommendation not to seek a prosecution in terms of to recommend no prosecution for secretary clinton in her use of that private e-mail account. and this after the fbi found among other things it included more than 100 e-mails with classified material. fbi director comey repeated that no reasonable prosecutor would pursue that case even if clinton mishandled that classified material through gross negligence. there is a law specifically against that, but comey said under it, for a case to be prosecuted successfully, given precedent in other similar cases, a prosecutor would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that clinton mishandled classified documents with clear, criminal intent. in other words, gross negligence alone is not enough. >> should have known, must have known, had to know, does not

. >> mr. cummings? >> director, i have just one question. >> i've been sitting here and listening to this and i really -- this is something that bothered me in the lois lerner case and it bothers me in this case. and i'm just wondering your opinion. miss lawrence had talked about this, the chilling effect of your having to come here and justify your decisions. and i know that you've been really nice and you've just explained why you did what you did and i'm glad you're doing it. but, you know, do you at all -- and i know -- i mean, taking off -- i'm just talking about, here you've got people making decisions and then being pulled here in the congress to then say, okay, to be questioned about the decisions. at what point -- or do you even think about, it becoming a chilling effect? because most people, you know, when their decisions are made, don't get this kind of opportunity. as you well know. there are no statements. you know they either get indicted or they're not. so i know that you see this as a sp

i recognize the ranking member, mr. cummings. >> director comey coming thank you for being here today. i want to begin by commending you and the public surveys that the fbi for the independent investigation, you conducted. you had a thankless task. no matter what recommendation you made, you were sure to be criticized. there is no question that you were extremely or. in fact, some may say you went too far in your investigation. but of course, that was your job. that is your job. secretary clinton has acknowledged that she made a mess date in using a personal e-mail account. you explained on tuesday that she and her colleagues at the state department were extremely careless with their e-mails. but after conducting this exhaust and review, you determine that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case based on this evidence. and you and the career staff recommended against prosecution. based on the previous cases you haven't, as as prosecutors have gone forward, they would have been holding the secretary to a different ve

director comey: thank you mr. chairman, mr. cummings, member of the committee. i'm proud to be here representing the people of the fbi, who did this investigation as they do all their work, in a competent, honest, and independent way. i believe this into best -- investigation was conducted consistent with the highest ability of the fbi. our folks did it in an apolitical and professionally, including the recommendation as to the appropriate resolution of the case. as i said, i expected there will be significant public debate, and i'm a big fan of transparency, so i welcome the conversation we will have here today. i do think a lot of folks have questions about why did we reach the conclusion we did, and what was our thinking. i hope very much to get an opportunity to address that and explain it. i hope the end of the day, people can disagree and agree, but at least understand the decision was made the way you would want it to be. by people who did not give a hoot about politics, but who care about what are the facts, haveis the law, and how similar people, all pe

[applause] mr. cummings: thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you, governor. mayor franklin, to the distinguished members of the democratic platform committee, as i was standing back there i was thinking to myself about all that has happened over the last few days in minnesota, baton rouge, and dallas. and i couldn't help but think about a sign that when i got here, we were running a little late. when i got here, governor, the first thing i saw on the table ,ack there was a sign that said love trumps hate. we need to, we need to put that in the d.n.a. of every cell of our brains, particularly at this moment. and it reminded me of something else. and that is that ladies and gentlemen, and i saw this, and i want to keep focused on this. we can spend a lot of time concentrating on who we're fighting against. but ladies and gentlemen, the people in america want taos concentrate on what we're fighting for. what we're fighting for. [applause] today i'm proud as a public servant, i've not always felt this way, i've seen things in the congress, i

this morning, one of the guys in my neighborhood -- i live in inner city baltimore, and the guy said, mr. cummings, tell me something, when that boy dylann roof in south carolina killed those people at the church, they went and got him a burger at burger king. but yet still the man in baton rouge and minnesota died. and so, i mean, we have to look at both sides of this and try to put ourselves in the place of the other. and i think that people just assume you're going to go to one corner or go to another and then you start talking past each other. but this is a critical moment. i'm glad that president -- former president bush will be joining the president tomorrow in dallas to address these issues. i think it's so important that we talk to each other and that we continue -- there's nothing wrong with peaceful demonstrations, but i am not going to sit here and beat up on the black lives matter young people because all they want is what our constitution has guaranteed them. and they simply want respect of the police. >> congressman -- >> by the way, there are a lot of great police. >> yes.

a guy said, mr. cummings, tell me something when that boy dylan roof down there in south carolina killed those people at the church, they went in and got him a burger, at burger king, but yet, still, the man in baton rouge, and minnesota, died. so we have to look at both sides of this, and try to put ourselves in the place of the other, and i think that -- people just assume that you're going to go to one corner or go to another and then you start talking past each other. this is a critical moment. i'm glad that president, former president bush, will be joining the president tomorrow, and in dallas, to address these issues. i think it's so important that we talk to each other, and that we continue -- there's absolutely nothing wrong with peaceful demonstrations, but i am not going to sit here and beat up on the black lives matter young people, because all they want is what our constitution has guaranteed them. and they simply want respect of the police. >> congressman -- >> and, by the way, there are

i want to thank ranking member, mr. cummings, i want to thank mr. boyle for his support in championing this through. with our committee. and i particularly want to thank bobby scott of virginia. his representation of that area , a pivotal voice in bringing this bill forward. i'm glad to be supportive of it and would urge my colleagues to also support it. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill, h.r. 4539, as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and, without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the able. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition >> i move the house suspend the rules and pass s. 552. e clerk: senate an act to an astreegic approach to reduce poverty ap and inclusive agricultural led economic growth and especially for women and child

mr. chairman, just one final thing, and i'll yield to mr. cummings. we've got a political debate where a lot of these issues that are going to be -- have been raised are going to be in the campaign. and we have secretary clinton going to defend what she did. she's acknowledged it's a mistake. we've got that great constitutional scholar mr. trump who is going to make his case about why this is wrong. but that's politics. that's not really having anything to do with the politics prosecutorial discretion. thank you, director comey. and i yield any additional time. >> i think the gentleman's going to yield back. we'll now recognize the gentleman from kentucky mr. matthews. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, mr. comey for showing up and your willingness to be transparent in answered a lot of unanswered questions. a few hours i went onto social media and asked people to and questions, and i've gotten over 500 questions. i'm sure you'll be able to answer a couple of them. one of the things i came in here to ask thaize is not the right difference, is w

. >> i recognize the ranking member mr. cummings. >> i want to thank you for being here today, especially on such short notice. you and your staff should be commended for the thorough review you conducted. infortunately my colleagues are now attacking you personally because it conflicted with their preconceived political outcome in this case. some have tried to argue that this case is far worse than the case of general petraeus who was convicted of knowingly and intentionally compromising highly classified information. one very vocal politician said, if she isn't indicted, the only reason is because the democrats are protecting her. she is being protected 100%. you look at general petraeus. you look at ail the other people that did a fraction of what she did, but she has much worse judgment than he had and she's getting away with it and it's unfair to him, end of quote. director comey, you were the director of the fbi when general petraeus pled guilty. >> yes. >> if i understand that case correctly, general petraeus kept hi

it is the intention of the committee -- i told mr. cummings that we would come back after votes. votes have been pushed back a bit. so what i would like to to is go into recess for five minutes, and then we'll start with our second panel. committee stands in recess until five minutes from now. thank you again, director comey. >>> tonight on c-span3, a house hearing on misconduct by tsa workers. european leaders discuss brexit. former british prime minister tony blair responds to a report condemning the decision to invade iraq in 2003. and vice president biden hosts a summit on cancer research. >>> at a house hearing today, two homeland security subcommittees presented reports on misconduct by transportation security administration employees. their findings include tsa data showing misconduct grew by 29% from fiscal 2013 to 2015. tsa officials testified at this two-hour hearing. >> the committee on homeland secure, subcommittees on oversight and management efficiency and transportation security will come to order. the purpose of this hearing is to examine findings of a joint subco

in that case, as with mrs. clinton, investigators found no intent to leak the injured -- information to energy ages, but mr. cummings investigators made the case against the reservists, who pleaded to a misdemeanor charge. when he sits in that chair this morning, applicants -- republicans will come armed with times when the fbi did make a case against those who have mishandled classified information. let's go to rudy, san antonio, texas. democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i have been paying attention to what is going on. they say that she, the state department computers were hacked. suppose this is a counter intelligence ruse. suppose they did put out information, but it was false and the market top secret. -- marked it top secret. -- it justcurity seems to me like something is not right. this is what i came up with. it was done in world war ii were the told the enemy false information, market top secret. why not now? and they use that computer, media, all that stuff. they found out that it was, that

. >> joining me now is maryland congressman elijah cummings. thank you, mr. congressman, for being here. you've been the chief interlocutor with your opponents on the other side of the aisle and the chief truth teller in the minds of a lot of democrats about what's really going on on that committee. next week, the benghazi select committee will interview one more witness. this is a gentleman who created a hashtag and has been using it called, if you vote for hillary you are beyond stupid. why in your view is somebody with that kind of a hashtag being interviewed by the committee? >> first of all, let me say it seems as if, sadly, the republicans are addicted to benghazi. they don't want it to come to an end. and this is a man who, like you said, he put something on facebook. and they felt the need to interview him. they want this to go on and on and on. $7 million plus being spent, an unlimited budget. by the way, that $7 million is taxpayer dollars, to basically do exactly what? what mccarthy said, to derail hillary clinton's campaign. and so -- and i think

. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from mr. ohio for five minutes. >> thank you. matt i'm attorney general, i think the same that i find so disheartening, so unfortunate about fbi director cummings decision not to recommend criminal charges against former secretary of state, hillary clinton last week. a lot of americans come it look like we're seen a double standard here. on equal treatment under the law. under the under the facts of the case as laid out by director comay, virtually anybody else, i think most americans think, including myself there would have been charges proper crime against virtually anyone else in the country. but the politically connected hillary clinton, we will charge her. look what coming laid out. it's been laid out to some degree but i think it warrants doing it again. he found that despite the fact that hillary claim she had never sent or received classified information over private e-mail, she had actually sent 110 of of them, over 100 of them, eight of those were determined to be top-secret at the time they are sent. i soon based upon

maria: now -- >> and mr. comey says, oh, we have no reason to believe that they didn't turn over everything that -- maria: well, what do you think happens now? according to a press release from elijiah cummings, the ranking member of the oversight committee, chaffetz, congressman chaffetz has called for an emergency hearing with comey tomorrow. now, chaffetz himself has not said this, but cummings is saying this, that he's calling for an emergency meeting tomorrow. can anything come out of an emergency meeting with jim comey now in front of congress? >> i don't think that chaffetz is the guy to be doing it, to be quite candid. i think paul ryan, who has the respect of a large segment of the american community, republicans and democrats, should be the person who raises the questions. and he should be doing it. chaffetz, unfortunately, has been stigmatized quite successfully by the democrats as being overly political. so he's the wrong guy to be doing this, and he's no match for comey. >> what's interesting to

by both the house of representatives and right here in the united states senate, mr. president. today employees at executive agencies may no longer conduct official business over-personal e-mails without ensuring that any records they create in their personal accounts are properly archived and official electronic message count within 20 dice. within 20 days. had these commonsense measures been in place or required when secretary clintoned and her predecessors were in office, the practices identified in the inspectoinspector general's repd not have persisted over many years and multiple administrations, democrat and republican. secretary clinton, her team and her predecessors would have gotten better guidance from congress on how the federal records act applies to technology, and that did not exist when the law was first passed over 60 years ago. wcialtion let's move -- well, let's move forward. it is important that we continue to implement the 2014 reforms to the federal records act in order to tackle these long-standing weaknesses. it is also imperative for us to kee