Ranking Member Schakowsky Condemns Republican Threat of Contempt Against Small Biotech Company

Statement

Today Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky issued the following statement in response to the announcement that the Select Investigative Panel will be meeting to consider a report recommending that the House of Representatives hold StemExpress in criminal contempt of Congress:

"Chair Blackburn has manufactured a controversy over information that she does not need. Her threat to punish a small biotech company and its owner is particularly outrageous given the company's compliance with her unilateral subpoena demands. The McCarthyesque threat that StemExpress "name names' of all employees or face congressional contempt is disgraceful. We will fight this continued abuse of congressional authority every step of the way."

"Chair Blackburn's apparent goal is to harass, intimidate, and ultimately drive companies away from fetal tissue work in an effort to end this important research. Her abusive actions endanger our ability to understand and seek effective treatments for a broad range of debilitating diseases and conditions, including the Zika virus, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. This dangerous witch hunt must come to an end."

"In response to the Chair's demands, StemExpress has produced approximately 1,700 pages of documents, and offered witnesses to explain its business practices. Having refused these offers -- and following a four-month delay -- Chair Blackburn has abruptly decided to pursue criminal contempt on the eve of the House leaving until after the election."

Background

StemExpress is a small biotechnology company committed to "saving lives by providing researchers and research institutions specimens and products that accelerate the cure and prevention of significant medical conditions at life?changing speed."[1] The company was a key target of the deceptively-edited videos created by anti-abortion extremist David Daleiden and the "Center for Medical Progress". Republican Panel members have embraced Daleiden's cause from the outset of this investigation.

Chair Blackburn has issued sweeping and burdensome demands for documents with unreasonable and unrealistic deadlines, continually shifted the goal posts when StemExpress has complied, and falsely claimed widespread noncompliance. Chair Blackburn and other Panel Republicans have repeatedly used inflammatory rhetoric and misleading staff-created exhibits to accuse the company of criminal misconduct.[2]

Contrary to these false narratives, StemExpress has responded by providing approximately 1,700 pages of documents, offering witnesses to explain its business practices and -- by agreement with Majority staff -- creating accounting reports representing its fetal tissue transfers. But instead of getting additional explanation and facts directly from the witnesses offered by StemExpress months ago, Chair Blackburn has now elected to manufacture a controversy over documents that are not needed to complete the Panel's work.

On May 6, 2016, StemExpress sent a detailed explanation of its compliance with the Panel's February 12 and March 29 unilateral subpoenas. The company catalogued how they had complied with each request, disputed the claim that materials were still owed, and asked for an additional subpoena, which Chair Blackburn has never issued, to cover any new requests for information.[3]

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