Select Committee Investigation is "Politics," says Majority Leader

A nine month, half a million dollar investigation went to committee today under the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007. The opening statement of the Honorable Bill Delahunt, Chairman, reads, "The purpose of these hearings is to discover what happened on August 2 during Roll Call vote 814...I understand this committee's mandate is to determine how and why this roll call unfolded in the manner it did. And make recommendations to ensure the integrity of the voting procedures."

The committee is investigating the result of a vote that occurred on August 2, 2007. It was an event in which controversy ensued due to voting integrity, or rather when and if a vote was counted before the cutoff. The interim speaker called a 214-214 vote at the cutoff, yet there was apparently a vote or more not counted. When asked if he thought this investigation was just "politics," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer responded yes, referring to this minority Republican party requested investigation. A half a million dollars and nine months later, seemingly nothing has been accomplished and it has been found that no malice was at hand by those making vote cutoff decisions that day. While wrong doing may have been at hand, it seemed to be the general consensus among committee members and witnesses that respect between everyone was mutual, and this was simply a quest to learn what happened.

While this was apparently just a matter of miscommunication, which caused an unusual and raucous eruption last August in the House chamber, the committee's investigation, which again took a half a million dollars from a government that is trillions in debt, has yielded nothing more than could be seen on August 8, 2007.