WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today made the following statement after the Senate’s top Democrat objected to allowing a previously scheduled national security briefing hosted by the Judiciary Committee:

“The federal government’s primary responsibility is to protect the American people, so it’s unbelievable that the Minority Leader would block Senators from both parties from holding a national security briefing to examine our nation’s most critical tools to protect the homeland. Today, the Judiciary Committee was set to hear from senior intelligence officials about highly sensitive intelligence gathering authorities that will soon require action from Congress. It’s disturbing and reckless for the Minority Leader to block the briefing. We’ve seen too many recent reminders of how unsafe the world is today. This is no time to play politics with our national security,” Grassley said.

Over the last two weeks, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has abused a rarely-used procedural tool to block Senate committee business from taking place two hours after the Senate convenes session for the day. Grassley rebuked Schumer last week for using the same tactics, which cut short a hearing on free speech, blocked a hearing on Russian interference in the U.S. democratic process and cancelled a markup to advance bipartisan anti-human trafficking legislation.

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