Replies

Thanks, When. I went back to C-Span and found the bit and tried my best to type it. Transcriptionist, I’m not. It’s almost precisely at the 5 hour mark. This is the exchange between Mr. Mica and Jarvis that really got to me:

M: Just real quickly. We’ve certainly seen a wide diversity of opinion here today, but I think the whole committee and all the members of Congress are united in one thing: that we believe you have some discretion and we believe that you can take down the barriers at the World War II, Martin Luther King, and other open area monuments. Are you prepared to do that?

J: No, sir, I’m not. I’m prepared to respect their First Amendment rights to access all of these monuments, memorials, but ...

M: So, are you taking them down in that regard or are you just ...

J: The memorial - the uh ... The current barricades are standing, not blocking, access. They’re still up.

M: And you’re not prepared to go back? See, I think that’s wrong. I think you have the discretion not to put those up. You have the discretion to protect the monument and that can be done through law enforcement working with the District and others, or in any jurisdiction. I don’t know what it takes. It may take a law. We’re going to be back in this situation probably in two or three months again. I don’t like that, but that’s the way this democratic Republic works; that we have to debate these things. You do, and you clearly have stated that you have, the discretion to take those barriers down. And I’m asking you, Mr. Jarvis, to take those barriers down. Veterans have hauled them away, members of Congress have pushed them aside, and citizens have come and hauled them away and will continue to do that. So, would you reconsider, and today take those barriers down?

J: We still feel that ...

M: You won’t do it ...

J: ... due to a lack of appropriations the barriers are appropriate.

M: Well, I don’t know who your bosses are, if they aren’t at this dias and have not expressed themselves that’s unanimous, in a bipartisan manner ... Do I have to send you a letter with instructions from a hundred members of Congress? Two hundred members of Congress? Three hundred members of Congress to do that, would you do it?

J: I WILL DO IT WHEN YOU PASS AN APPROPRIATIONS BILL. (emphasis added)

M: Mmm, Mr. Chairman, I .... (swings microphone, look of utter disgust and contempt, walks out)