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[House Report 109-689]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

109th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session                                                     109-689

======================================================================

 
      DIRECTING THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO PROVIDE TO THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES CERTAIN DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE SECRETARY OF 
      STATE RELATING TO THE REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE ON 
  INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON JULY 28, 
       2006, PURSUANT TO THE IRAN AND SYRIA NONPROLIFERATION ACT

                                _______
                                

 September 27, 2006.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

Mr. Hyde, from the Committee on International Relations, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                            ADDITIONAL VIEWS

                       [To accompany H. Res. 985]

    The Committee on International Relations, to whom was 
referred the resolution (H. Res. 985) directing the Secretary 
of State to provide to the House of Representatives certain 
documents in the possession of the Secretary of State relating 
to the report submitted to the Committee on International 
Relations of the House of Representatives on July 28, 2006, 
pursuant to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act, having 
considered the same, reports thereon without recommendation.

                           TABLE OF CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose and Summary..............................................     2
Background and Need for the Legislation..........................     2
Hearings.........................................................     2
Committee Consideration..........................................     2
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................     2
Constitutional Authority Statement...............................     3
Additional Views.................................................     5

                          Purpose and Summary

    House Resolution 985 directs the Secretary of State to 
provide to the House of Representatives certain documents in 
the possession of the Secretary relating to the report 
submitted to the House International Relations Committee on 
July 28, 2006, pursuant to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation 
Act.

                Background and Need for the Legislation

    House Resolution 985 is a resolution of inquiry, which 
pursuant to Rule XXIII, clause 7 of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives, directs the Committee to act on the resolution 
within 14 legislative days or a privileged motion to discharge 
the Committee is in order. H. Res. 985 was introduced and 
referred to the Committee on International Relations on 
September 7, 2006. The Committee held markup sessions on 
September 13, 2006 and ordered H. Res. 985 reported by voice 
vote without recommendation.
    Under the Rules and Precedents of the House, a resolution 
of inquiry is one of the methods used by the House to obtain 
information from the executive branch. According to Deschler's 
Procedure it is a ``simple resolution making a direct request 
or demand of the President or the head of an executive 
department to furnish the House of Representatives with 
specific factual information in the possession of the executive 
branch.'' \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Deschler's Precedents, H. Doc. No. 94-661, 94th Cong., 2d 
Sess., vol. 7, ch. 24, section 8.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On September 7, 2006, Mr. Berman of California introduced 
H. Res. 985. The resolution seeks all documents in the 
Secretary of State's possession relating to the report 
submitted to the House International Relations Committee on 
July 28, 2006, pursuant to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation 
Act.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ H. Res. 985, 109th Cong. (September 7, 2006).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The State Department and the International Relations 
Committee are currently negotiating the release to the 
International Relations Committee of documents within the scope 
of the resolution of inquiry. In recognition of these ongoing 
discussions, the Committee voted to report H. Res. 985 without 
recommendation.

                                Hearings

    The Committee did not hold hearings on H. Res. 985.

                        Committee Consideration

    On September 13, 2006, the Full Committee marked up H. Res. 
985, pursuant to notice, in open session and agreed to a motion 
to report the resolution without recommendation to the House by 
a voice vote.

                      Committee Oversight Findings

    The Committee held no oversight activities under clause 
2(b)(1) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives.

                   Constitutional Authority Statement

    Pursuant to clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the Committee finds the authority for 
this resolution in article I, section 1 of the Constitution.
                            Additional Views

    This resolution of inquiry--which I introduced with Mr. 
Delahunt--directs the Secretary of State to provide information 
to Congress regarding the recent release of a semi-annual 
report required by the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
    Let me provide a little background on why we are doing 
this.
    On July 20, Rep. Rohrabacher held a hearing in the 
Oversight and Investigations subcommittee on U.S. 
nonproliferation goals and strategies.
    At that hearing, Acting Assistant Secretary for 
Nonproliferation Frank Record--a former staff member of this 
committee--testified that he ``didn't recall'' if the long 
overdue report would include information about any Indian 
entities.
    When the report was submitted to the Committee only a week 
later--with information about two Indian firms proliferating to 
Iran, and just two days after the vote on the India nuclear 
deal--it seemed hard for me to believe that Mr. Record hadn't 
known about this and that the timing was purely coincidental.
    So on July 28, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Delahunt and I sent a 
letter to Secretary Rice expressing concern about Mr. Record's 
testimony and requesting a detailed briefing on why this report 
wasn't shared with members prior to the vote.
    For five weeks we didn't receive a response.
    It was only after my staff told the State Department I was 
considering this resolution of inquiry that we finally received 
a written response on September 7.
    Unfortunately, the response was totally inadequate, and 
State indicated no interest in accommodating our reasonable 
bipartisan request for a briefing, so our only recourse was to 
introduce this resolution.
    It wasn't until the morning of the markup at which we 
considered this resolution that I received a call from 
Undersecretary Nick Burns, who provided his perspective on why 
the report was submitted late.
    I like Mr. Burns, and believe he's a very good diplomat, 
but in this case my approach is the same as former President 
Ronald Reagan--``trust but verify.''
    Even if the report had come to Congress before the vote on 
the India nuclear bill, I don't think it would have changed my 
vote in favor of that legislation.
    But the information about the Indian entities was very 
relevant to the debate--particularly the motion to recommit, 
which would have conditioned civilian nuclear cooperation on 
India's support for U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from 
developing nuclear weapons.
    At the end of the day, this really isn't about the 
specifics of the India legislation.
    This is a much larger issue--the right of this Committee, 
and the Congress as a whole, to receive all relevant 
information when considering an extremely important piece of 
legislation with serious implications for U.S. foreign policy 
and national security.

                                   Howard L. Berman.

                                 
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