CONYERS STATEMENT ON GRASSLEY TREATMENT OF CBC MEMBERS TESTIFYING AT SESSIONS HEARING TODAY

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Congressman Cedric Richmond will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to Senator Jeff Sessions’ nomination for U.S. Attorney General. These Members are being required to testify as part of a third joint panel with non-Members of Congress and must sit through the hearing until the panel starts. After calling Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr., the current longest serving Member of Congress and co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, today issued the following statement in regards to the lack of courtesy typically afforded to Members of Congress who testify at hearings:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“As the Dean of the House, former Committee Chairman and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I reject the lack of comity and respect afforded to my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues who will testify in opposition to Senator Sessions during his confirmation hearing. Booker, Lewis and Richmond are being required to testify with non-Members of Congress, and remain seated during the hearing for an indefinite period of time before offering their testimony during the last panel of the hearing. 

“In the past, both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees have had a relationship based upon mutual respect and courtesy. What is set to take place today strongly deviates from the high level of cooperation we’ve always bestowed one another as colleagues in the United States Congress. I urge Chairman Grassley to reconsider the tone he is setting from this moment forward. As very busy Members of Congress with packed schedules, I believe Senator Booker, and Representatives Lewis and Richmond should have been able to provide their testimony on a member-only panel at the start of the hearing.”

Testimony begins at 3:38:24

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