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Rh THE CHAIRMAN: Do any members wish to be heard?

MR. SCHIFF: Mr. Chairman, I seek permission to address the committee.

THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, Mr. Schiff, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

MR. SCHIFF: Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

I want to begin by expressing my alarm at where we are in this committee. I have served on the committee for 10 years now. This is the ﬁrst time we have sought to declassify highly sensitive information for a political reason. It is, I think, a terrible line to cross.

The memoranda which the majority will seek to make public today contains any number of misleading representations and factual problems.

The FBI has sought to appear before our committee to have an opportunity to fully inform members of the underlying circumstances and address any concerns that members have before we take the step -- which the Department of Justice has, I think, all too accurately described as extraordinarily reckless -- to publicly release classified information that affects investigative equities and could potentially reveal sources and methods.

I intend to offer three motions today: The first --

THE CHAIRMAN: If the gentleman would yield, I actually made a motion and you requested to make your classiﬁed memo available to the House. I actually have moved that, so I have made that motion already.

MR. SCHIFF: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is one of the three motions I am going to be making today.

THE CHAIRMAN: Okay.

MR. SCHIFF: The first is to make the minority memo available to all the House Members so they can see a complete factual record of the circumstances