Contempt of Congress charge riles Democrats
GOP wants fetal tissue provider cited
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Republicans on a House panel investigating the practices of abortion providers voted Wednesday to recommend that a biomedical company and its CEO be held in contempt of Congress.
The vote came after Democrats stormed out of the meeting in protest.
All eight GOP members of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives voted to proceed with contempt charges against California-based StemExpress and CEO Catherine Spears Dyer, saying they defied congressional subpoenas to turn over accounting records and other documents.
“A subpoena is not a suggestion,” said the panel’s chairwoman, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “It is a lawful order, and a subpoena must be complied with.”
Democrats argued the panel had no authority to bring contempt charges and accused Blackburn and the other Republicans of a political “McCarthyesque witch hunt” intended to drive fetal tissue providers out of business.
“We would not participate in what we view as a very illegitimate process,” the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, said after all six Democrats walked out of the meeting just before the contempt vote.
The contempt charges now go to the House Energy and Commerce Committee for consideration, and then on to the full House.
The House is expected to adjourn soon for its October recess, so it’s unlikely the full committee will take up the charges until after the November election, Blackburn said.
Wednesday’s chaotic meeting was the latest display of partisan warfare splitting the 14-member investigative panel. It was formed last year after videos surfaced that showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue and organs. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited, and a number of state investigations cleared the organization of any wrongdoing.
Regardless, the investigative panel has plowed ahead with its probe of companies involved in fetal tissue procurement, including StemExpress, which provides research labs with cells, fluids, blood and tissue. The company collected fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood and sent it to researchers before ending its association with the abortion provider in August 2015.
On Feb. 12, the panel issued a subpoena demanding that StemExpress turn over its banking and accounting records and divulge the names of employees involved in fetal tissue procurement. A second subpoena, issued March 29, called on Dyer to release the names of the company’s finance director or account manager and turn over accounting documents.
Republicans argue the documents are needed for the panel to complete its work and determine if StemExpress violated federal law, which allows companies involved in fetal tissue procurement to recoup their costs but bars them from making a profit.
StemExpress provided the panel with accounting summaries of its records but refused to turn over the actual documents, according to a 20-page report by the panel’s Republican majority. The company also refused to provide the names of its employees, saying that could put their lives in jeopardy.
Blackburn said the panel’s investigators first asked for the documents nine months ago and issued subpoenas only after the company refused to voluntarily release them.
“The panel is entitled to this information so we can answer the question that is raised by the (federal) statute: Did companies improperly profit?” Blackburn said.
Democrats countered that StemExpress has produced 1,700 pages of documents and has offered witnesses to explain its business practices. They said Blackburn abruptly decided to begin contempt proceedings with no notice to the company, as the House prepared to adjourn until after the November election.
“Getting facts has never been the (panel’s) goal,” said Schakowsky, who slammed the contempt proceedings as a dangerous partisan attack that could shut down life-saving research on the Zika virus, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.
Republicans on the panel are trying to stop fetal tissue research, Schakowsky said.
“And I’m sorry to say — because of their campaign of harassment, of subpoenas, of naming names, they are succeeding,” she said.
A representative from StemExpress did not attend the meeting.