{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/democrats-walk-out-before-house-fetal-tissue-panel-approves-contempt", "Democrats Walk Out Before House Fetal Tissue Panel Approves Contempt Measure", "2016-09-21", "2016", "2016-09", "Democrat", "House", "CO", "Diana DeGette", "D000197", "degette.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Republican members of a special House committee\u00a0investigating\u00a0fetal-tissue transactions voted Wednesday to hold a biotechnology\u00a0firm in\u00a0contempt of Congress, moments after Democrats walked out of the Capitol Hill meeting in protest.\nThe\u00a0Select Investigative Panel, created by the House GOP to examine links between abortion providers and medical researchers, subpoenaed California-based StemExpress earlier this year seeking a variety of records. While the firm provided much of the information the panel sought, Republicans say it did not cooperate\u00a0completely, withholding employee names as well as\u00a0banking and accounting statements.\nThe panel\u2019s\u00a0chairman said Wednesday that the records are crucial to determining whether StemExpress\u00a0is\u00a0illegally profiting from the fetal tissue trade. The company has said it loses money on those transactions.\n\u201cThe panel is entitled to this information so we can answer the question.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0Did companies improperly profit?\u201d said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). \u201cA subpoena is not a suggestion. It is a lawful order, and a subpoena is to be complied with.\u201d\nDemocrats, who opposed the panel\u2019s creation and have called for its shuttering, renewed their objections to the Republican inquiry at the Wednesday meeting. They\u00a0raised several procedural and substantive objections to the contempt-of-Congress resolution and ultimately walked out of the meeting before the final vote after an unsuccessful attempt to adjourn the meeting.\n\u201cThis whole process is illegitimate, and we are not willing to participate in\u00a0it,\u201d Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the panel\u2019s top Democrat, told reporters afterward.\nAnother panel member, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), called\u00a0the proceeding\u00a0a \u201ckangaroo court.\u201d\nThe next steps for the contempt resolution are unclear.\u00a0The full House would have to approve\u00a0the measure before it is referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. After the vote Wednesday, Blackburn said that \u201cwe will leave that for leadership to decide.\u201d\nDemocrats said\u00a0that because the panel is officially an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, the full committee\u00a0would\u00a0need to approve the contempt measure before it moves to the House floor.\nThe House last passed a contempt-of-Congress resolution in 2014, after former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner declined to testify before a House committee.\nRepublicans said that StemExpress\u2019s unwillingness to share the records they sought\u00a0suggested possible wrongdoing: \u201cThere is obviously something that is being hidden here,\u201d said Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.).\n\u201cWhat payment have they received that they don\u2019t want us to see?\u201d added\u00a0Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.).\nBut StemExpress said that\u00a0they have\u00a0cooperated with the probe and have been\u00a0willing to cooperate further.\n\u201cThis is a disappointing outcome after spending over a year providing accounting documents and offering to testify \u2014 an offer they never took us up on,\u201d the company said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cThe claim that we did not provide bank records is simply not true. StemExpress continues to be devoted to the acceleration of cures and prevention of serious medical conditions.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/democrats-walk-out-before-house-fetal-tissue-panel-approves-contempt"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.538767945021391, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}