{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://pittenger.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pittenger-how-is-preventing-terror-attack-not-essential-video", "Pittenger:  How is preventing terror attack "not essential?" (VIDEO)", "2013-12-13", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "NC", "Robert Pittenger", "P000606", "pittenger.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nDecember 13, 2013\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n CONGRESSMAN PITTENGER: \u00a0HOW IS PREVENTING A TERROR ATTACK ON THE U.S. \u201cNOT ESSENTIAL?\u201d \n\u00a0\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Top political appointees were deemed \u201cessential\u201d and continued work at the U.S. Treasury Department during October\u2019s partial government shutdown, while staff responsible for disrupting terror network financing was deemed \u201cnon-essential\u201d and sent home.\n\u00a0\nCongressman Robert Pittenger (NC-09), who Chairs the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, questioned Treasury Secretary Jack Lew about these decisions during a Financial Services Committee hearing on Thursday, December 12th.\n\u00a0\n\u201cDuring the government shutdown, according to news reports, Treasury kept top political appointees on the job as \u2018essential\u2019 so they could tell the world you had furloughed almost everyone who is tasked with stopping the funding of terror and stopping people doing business with Iran\u2019s rouge regime. \u00a0By that decision, those jobs were deemed \u2018non-essential.\u2019\n\u00a0\n\u201cThat troubles me,\u201d said Congressman Pittenger, \u201cand leads to a few questions.\u201d\n\u00a0\n\u201cFirst, how is preventing a terror attack on the U.S., and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, \u2018not essential,\u2019 and what sort of jobs were more important than that?\u201d\n\u00a0\nIn response, Treasury Secretary Lew stated, \u201cthat\u2019s just a consequence of shutting down the government.\u201d\n\u00a0\nPrior to the shutdown, on September 27th, the Treasury Department announced these critical functions would continue in the event of a shutdown, leading Congressman Pittenger to question if the furloughs were politically-motivated.\n\u00a0\n###", 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://pittenger.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pittenger-how-is-preventing-terror-attack-not-essential-video"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8358759805560112, "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"}