Press Releases

Rep. Rick Larsen, WA-02, issued the following statement today about the House of Representatives’ planned vote on the contempt resolution for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“This vote is nothing but a politically-motivated attack on the Obama administration under false pretenses,” Larsen said. “Republicans should drop their transparent politicking and let Congress get to work on creating jobs for Northwest Washington and the rest of America.

“Controversial ‘gunwalking’ programs started under President Bush. President Bush’s Attorney General knew about the programs and did nothing to shut them down. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later developed Operation Fast and Furious as the latest of such programs without approval. When Attorney General Holder found out about it, he shut it down.

“Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department offered Congressional investigators unprecedented access to internal documents. Congressional Republicans refused to take yes for an answer. They pursued a partisan investigation and refused all Democratic requests for witnesses and hearings. They did not even agree to hear from the former head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who was responsible for the programs.

“Congress has to deal with real problems. Too many Americans are still out of work. We need to get the economy growing faster and adding jobs. Republicans have failed to come up with a comprehensive jobs plan, so they are resorting to this political sideshow to try to gin up support at the polls. It will not work. Americans want us to work together to create jobs.”