Posted on 09/24/2014 9:36:44 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who holds a coveted seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has skipped out on nearly half of the public hearings held by the committee over the last two years, including one where counterterrorism officials warned of the emerging ISIS danger, documents show.
Shaheen missed an April 11, 2013, hearing on U.S. policy toward Syria in which a top U.S. Treasury official in charge of terrorist financing told Senate committee members that a new terrorist group, ISIS, had sprung up, “underscoring the danger this group poses for Syria and the world.”
Shaheen was not listed as being present at the hearing in a Foreign Relations Committee report.
Records also show Shaheen didn’t show up for full committee hearings on counterterrorism policies, U.S. policy toward Iran and a host of others involving security and foreign policy.
The threat of terrorism and ISIS has become a major flashpoint in Shaheen’s tough re-election battle in the Granite State against former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown. The ex-Massachusetts Republican has accused Shaheen of not making a statement about ISIS until last month and being too late to react to the jihadists’ bloody campaign.
Shaheen has defended her record, saying she has “been talking about this and the threat of a civil war in Syria” for years.
But apparently not much from her seat on the Foreign Relations committee.
The panel has held 30 full committee hearings in this congressional session, according to committee records, and Shaheen was not listed as being there at 11 hearings in which a report was issued. In three other hearings in which reports weren’t released, Shaheen did not appear to show up either, according to committee video and transcripts.
In the 2011-2012 congressional session, Shaheen appeared to miss nine of 30 committee hearings, for a total of 23 over the last four years, according to records.
A Shaheen campaign spokesman did not dispute the number of hearings when Shaheen was absent.
But the campaign issued a statement saying, “While hearings are often scheduled at conflicting times,” the New Hampshire Democrat “maintains constant communications” with national security officials.
“Senator Shaheen is one of the most active and engaged members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” spokesman Harrell Kirstein said.
In fact, Shaheen issued a press release on March 20, 2013, raising “grave concerns” over reports that Syria had used chemical weapons.
On that same day, the Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on “counterterrorism policies and priorities,” but Shaheen didn’t show up.
The press release sent out by Shaheen’s office didn’t mention that.
This woman is a stain on the senate. Almost as bad as Debbie Stabmenow
...and, this means-what? Was she a key vote, on the board of monkeys?
“This woman is a stain on the senate. Almost as bad as Debbie Stabmenow”
Don’t forget the twit from WA, Patty Murray, and of course our two “yentas” from CA, Fineswine and Boxster!
FAIR Immigration helped spoil open borders pimp Spencer Abraham in 2000. I think Stabenow won 49-48 or something like that.
Its the electorate that put these people in DC over and over again. Their voting and attendance records are public for anyone to see. Until we wake up nothing will change in DC. Its no different than that. When we first moved to NH many years ago someone like Shaheen would have never even got a 2nd glance.
The committee took two key votes in 2013 on Syria.
First, in May, 2013 the committee voted 15 to 3 to arm the Syrian rebels and she was a yes vote. The 3 no votes came from the 2 antiwar dems and the isolationist Rand Paul. That ultimately lead to CIA providing arms to the moderate rebel groups but it was somewhat limited. Now, the whole congress has voted to spend more money to arm more and faster and the military will be doing it.
The second vote was in Sept 2013 on bombing Assad. That was a political hot potato issue but the committee passed it on a 10-7 vote and she was a yes vote. Of course there was never any bombing because it was resolved by Assad turning over his chemical weapons.
Note: this topic was posted 9/25/2014. Thanks Tailgunner Joe.
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