Confusion and Distortion on Towns’ Terror Hearing Announcement Raise Concerns

WASHINGTON. D.C. – Responding to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns’ (D-NY) latest revelation that he has always supported conducting hearings into the Christmas-day terrorist attempt, Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) issued the following statement:

“Chairman Towns’ accusation that Committee Republicans are grandstanding and politicizing the security of the American people, while simultaneously latching-on to some self-described mantle of bipartisanship, exudes arrogance and ignores the very language Towns used in a letter to me just two days ago.  Chairman Towns says Committee Republicans misread and misconstrued his plan to examine a failed attack while no one has seen a tangible manifestation of this plan.  Chairman Towns says I refused to discuss efforts to coordinate committee action, yet nearly two weeks ago, I called Chairman Towns twice to begin a conversation about holding bipartisan hearings and my staff attempted to follow-up.  Chairman Towns has still not returned my phone calls.

“I suspect the Chairman’s reversal is more about covering-up his stonewalling that angered both Republican and Democratic members of his committee than anything else.  The erratic behavior displayed in letters and statements put out in Chairman Towns’ name displays a disconnect from the reality of the situation and is very troubling.”

Click Here to view Issa’s Letter to Towns from January 5th

Click Here to view Towns’ Letter to Issa from January 6th

Click Here to view the letter sent by Committee Republicans on January 7th

Click Here to View Towns’ Letter to the Committee from January 8th