Dear Democratic Colleague,

This is a sad time for our country. It has been a somber and prayerful time for all of us. None of us has come to Congress to impeach a president. All of us came to uphold the oath we take to support and defend the Constitution. Democrats and Republicans alike must always put country over party, especially now. I have always said that any decision we make would be based on a review of the facts and the oath that we take. I have also said that when the facts warranted it, we would be ready to proceed.

Sadly, the facts revealed in the past week have warranted an impeachment inquiry. In his telephone call with the President of Ukraine, the President showed a disregard for our national security, for the integrity of our elections and for the oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

I thank the Chairmen and all Members of our Caucus for their thoughtful consideration of the decision that we needed to make. The path forward will be centered in the Intelligence Committee led by Chairman Adam Schiff. I commend him and the Members who will be working over the District Work Period to continue to advance this inquiry.

This is a matter of national security. As a group of 300 leading former national security experts who served under Republican and Democratic Presidents wrote today, “President Trump appears to have leveraged the authority and resources of the highest office in the land to invite additional foreign interference into our democratic processes. That would constitute an unconscionable abuse of power. It also would represent an effort to subordinate America’s national interests – and those of our closest allies and partners – to this President’s personal political interest... Having worked across administration of both parties to uphold and advance those national interests, we consider the President’s actions to be a profound national security concern.”

This is also a matter of the Constitution and the integrity of our elections. The whistleblower complaint, which the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General determined to be both of “urgent concern” and “credible,” warns that the President’s actions “pose risks to U.S. national security and undermine the U.S. Government’s efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in U.S. elections.” Further, Acting DNI Maguire testified that “the greatest challenge that we do have is to make sure that we maintain the integrity of our election system,” and that “protecting the sanctity of our election within the United States, whether it’d be a national, city, state, local is perhaps the most important job that we have [within] the intelligence community.”

With our inquiry in place, we can focus on promoting our For The People agenda. We promised in the campaign that we would lower health care costs by reducing the price of prescription drugs, and I encourage all Members to have conversations with constituents about H.R.3: The Lower Drug Costs Now Act. I thank our Chairmen, Frank Pallone, Richie Neal and Bobby Scott, for their leadership in bringing this transformative legislation forward. The District Work Period Packet contains helpful information for communicating our message on this key legislation For The People.

The Chair of our Caucus has arranged a series of conference calls over the District Work Period, and I will be in regular touch with Members during this period. Please call me at any time.

Thank you for your patriotism and leadership.