Delahunt Named Top Dem. on International Relations Subcommittee
By Brittany Lawonn
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 – Rep. William Delahunt has been named the top Democrat on a newly formed International Relations subcommittee.
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which has jurisdiction over all subjects within the full committee’s purview, held its first hearing Wednesday on the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food program.
Delahunt, in his opening remarks Wednesday, called the new panel “sorely needed” and said he hoped its creation would provide an opportunity to “reinvigorate some of the basic checks and balances that are critical to the proper functioning of our democracy.”
The congressman also said he hoped the subcommittee would refrain from leaking information and strive to expand its work to investigate more than a single issue.
“To limit ourselves to the Oil-for-Food program does not begin to adequately reveal the magnitude of the circumvention by the Saddam Hussein regime of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the first Gulf War,” Delahunt said.
Delahunt was named the 10-member subcommittee’s ranking minority member through a secret ballot cast last week by fellow Democrats on the International Relations Committee.
Steve Schwadron, spokesman for the congressman, said Delahunt’s background as a prosecutor and his reputation in the House as a “professional investigator” helped him acquire the nomination.
Delahunt, who served as the Norfolk County district attorney for more than 20 years, is also on the House Judiciary Committee.
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