Don't Let Republicans Kill Resolution of Inquiry
By Mike Hersh and Sophie de Vries, Sep 5, 2005

Help Needed - PLEASE Call Your Representative's Office TUESDAY Re: HRes 375 the Downing Street Minutes Resolution of Inquiry

A few months ago, Rep. Barbara Lee introduced a Resolution of Inquiry [H.Res. 375 Re: the Downing Street Minutes] to investigate Bush Administration deceit and wrongdoing leading up to the Iraq War. The After Downing Street Coalition - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org - is working with Rep. Lee's office and others to gain Congressional cosponsors for this Resolution.

Unfortunately we are running out of time. The showdown vote is drawing near. You can help us win! We need your help. Especially if your Representative is a member of the International Relations Committee (see list of members below). Please send this to all your lists, post on blogs and yahoo groups, etc.

Congress reconvenes September 6th and the International Relations Committee (IR Committee) could vote on the Resolution soon - perhaps even that day. Please call your Congressmember's D.C. office Tuesday morning, September 6th and urge him or her to cosponsor the Resolution of Inquiry. Please note: "support" isn't enough. We need them to *cosponsor.*

Then, keep calling every day - and get friends and family to call - until there's a vote on the Resolution. Watch for news about this at the committee website: http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/index.htm and see below for a list of IR Committee members, cosponsors, the text of the Resolution, the Downing Street documents and more. Use AfterDowningStreet's Lobby Kit to persuade your Congress Person: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/538

Get your Member's D.C. telephone number here: http://www.house.gov/

Ask for the Legislative Director or the person in charge of Iraq or foreign policy, express your strong support for the Resolution of Inquiry (ROI), and request the Representative join the growing number of cosponsors. If they tell you that the representative will *not* be cosponsoring H. Res. 375, ask for specific reasons. Ask what it would take for the Representative to co-sponsor.

If your Representative is a Republican, explain that Rep. Jim Leach from Iowa - a top-ranking Republican on the International Relations Committee - is already cosponsoring. If your Representative is a Democrat, explain that Leach and Tom Lantos, the Ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, are now cosponsoring. Ask: How can a Democrat refuse to cosponsor when a top Republican is consponsoring?

We need THREE total Republicans on the International Relations Committee and ALL of the Democrats to cosponsor for H. Res. 375 to pass from the Committee to the House for a floor vote - see below for members of the IR Committee. For every Democrat who refuses to cosponsor, we need an additional Republican.

Even if your Representative is not on the IR Committee, we need them as cosponsors, *not* just as supporters of the Resolution. If the ROI fails in committee, we'll need massive cosponsorship in the House.

We also need specific information to follow up on these calls. Find out if your Representative seems willing or reluctant to cosponsor and then report back to us at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1887

Current cosponsors: http://www.house.gov/lee/roi/roi.htm

We can't assume your Congressperson is aware of these materials. If they need to know more about the Resolution or express uncertainty, ask for a fax number and / or email address to send copies of the Resolution of Inquiry and the actual Downing Street Minutes to the Representative or staffer(s). Fax or email these materials to them. You can get them here:
One-page PDF of the Resolution of Inquiry: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/roi-onepage.pdf

Link to the ROI (scroll down): http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902

One-page PDF of the first Downing St. Minutes also known as the Downing Street Memo from July 23, 2002: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/dsmemo.pdf

Link to the Downing St. Minutes: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1

If your Representative signed Rep. Conyers' letter of 5/5/05 Calling on the President to Answer Questions Concerning the "secret Downing Street memo" but hasn't agreed to Cosponsor HRes 375, you should mention that. Here's a PDF list of Members of Congress who signed the letter: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/letters/bushletterlistofsigners.pdf

Here's a PDF of the letter itself: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/letters/bushsecretmemoltr5505.pdf

Members of the International Relations Committee

Democrats: Tom Lantos: California, 12th District Howard L. Berman: California, 28th District Gary L. Ackerman: New York, 5th District Eni F. H. Faleomavaega: American Samoa Donald M. Payne: New Jersey, 10th District Robert Menendez: New Jersey, 13th District Sherrod Brown: Ohio, 13th District Brad Sherman: California, 27th District Robert Wexler: Florida, 19th District Eliot L. Engel: New York, 17th District William D. Delahunt: Massachusetts, 10th District Gregory W. Meeks: New York, 6th District Barbara Lee: California, 9th District Joseph Crowley: New York, 7th District Earl Blumenauer: Oregon, 3rd District Shelley Berkley: Nevada, 1st District Grace F. Napolitano: California, 38th District Adam B. Schiff: California, 29th District Diane E. Watson: California, 33rd District Adam Smith: Washington, 9th District Betty McCollum: Minnesota, 4th District Ben Chandler: Kentucky, 6th District Dennis A. Cardoza: California, 18th District resume reading article

Republicans: Henry J. Hyde (Chairman): Illinois, 6th District James A. Leach: Iowa, 2nd District Christopher H. Smith: New Jersey, 4th District Dan Burton: Indiana, 5th District Elton Gallegly: California, 24th District Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: Florida, 18th District Dana Rohrabacher: California, 46th District Edward R. Royce: California, 40th District Peter T. King: New York, 3rd District Steve Chabot: Ohio, 1st District Thomas G. Tancredo: Colorado, 6th District Ron Paul: Texas, 14th District Darrell Issa: California, 49th District Jeff Flake: Arizona, 6th District Jo Ann Davis: Virginia, 1st District Mark Green: Wisconsin, 8th District Jerry Weller: Illinois, 11th District Mike Pence: Indiana, 6th District Thaddeus G. McCotter: Michigan, 11th District Katherine Harris: Florida, 13th District Joe Wilson: South Carolina, 2nd District John Boozman: Arkansas, 3rd District J. Gresham Barrett: South Carolina, 3rd District Connie Mack: Florida, 14th District Jeff Fortenberry: Nebraska, 1st District Michael McCaul: Texas, 10th District Ted Poe: Texas, 2nd District

We cannot thank you enough for your help. Your efforts really count!

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