Name: State Department Cancels Hill Briefings as Tensions Escalate Between Pompeo and Lawmakers
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State Department Cancels Hill Briefings as Tensions Escalate Between Pompeo and Lawmakers

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In an email response, a State Department spokesperson defended halting staff-level briefings, citing committee treatment of State Department officials who have testified in the past. “The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s unwillingness to engage in the Constitutionally-mandated accommodation process has compelled multiple career and non-career Department officials to seek personal counsel at great expense,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, at least one has been accused of lying before Congress without being given the opportunity to clear his name in an open hearing. The Committee’s treatment of officials is not one that is limited to one ‘issue area,’ so the Secretary’s direction with respect to engagements with the Committee is not limited by issue area.”“If the Chairman and his staff are unwilling to accept the testimony of Department officials, what is the point of sending up additional Department officials to brief his staff on any topic if their testimony won’t be accepted?” the spokesperson added.“The State Department doesn’t get to dictate how Congress conducts oversight. Their half-truths and falsehoods are a distraction. The record is clear that they’ve tried to thwart this committee’s oversight efforts at nearly every turn,” a Democratic committee aide said in response. The “briefings they cancelled have nothing to do with the committee’s oversight efforts. They’re playing games with issues that bear on our national security,” the aide added.The State Department spokesperson said that in the last 12 months, the department has supplied over 500 reports to Congress, responded to over 2,000 written questions, provided over 2,000 briefings to members, responded to over 1,200 congressional letters, and supported nearly 600 congressional trips.I have directed Department officials to prioritize hearing and briefing requests for other Committees and Members who continue to adhere to good-faith efforts of accommodation and who treat all Department employees with the professionalism and respect they deserve,“The timeline in the unclassified, unredacted report makes clear that Secretary Pompeo wasn’t reacting to an emergency in May 2019, but rather was carrying out a plan that was months in the making,” wrote and Levin in a statement released on Aug. 14. “If this factually inaccurate statement was made intentionally, it was a lie to Congress, and lying to Congress is a federal crime.”Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy.&nbsp;Twitter:&nbsp;Trending NowBy TaboolaMore from Foreign PolicyBy TaboolaThe latest high-profile departure underscores the turmoil at Foggy Bottom, and officials fear it will weaken an important watchdog already under fire from top Trump officials.A State Department watchdog report concludes that Pompeo followed proper channels in sending arms to Saudi Arabia but faults the State Department for not assessing the humanitarian risks of such a move.Latest12345Voices

In an email response, a State Department spokesperson defended halting staff-level briefings, citing committee treatment of State Department officials who have testified in the past. “The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s unwillingness to engage in the Constitutionally-mandated accommodation process has compelled multiple career and non-career Department officials to seek personal counsel at great expense,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, at least one has been accused of lying before Congress without being given the opportunity to clear his name in an open hearing. The Committee’s...

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State Department Cancels Hill Briefings as Tensions Escalate Between Pompeo and Lawmakers

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