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Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a briefing on the deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that was closed to the public. The briefing was conducted at one of the highest classification levels, even though the vast majority of the information provided was not classified. Since the Afghanistan withdrawal was completed nearly 10 months ago, the committee has only held one open, full committee hearing featuring an administration official. Below is a statement from House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans on the need for a full committee, unclassified hearing that is open to the public in the very near future.

“We want to thank the five State Department officials for coming to yesterday’s closed door, classified briefing on Afghanistan,” the Members stated. “While the overwhelming bulk of the discussions were unclassified, they did provide some classified information which was helpful regarding current realities in Afghanistan. However, we strongly believe the American people deserve to hear the significant amount of unclassified information about the relevant and important events before and after the disastrous withdrawal that was provided by the briefers. Therefore, we once again request these same briefers return to the committee for an open and unclassified hearing.”

The statement was signed by Lead Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX), and Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Scott Perry (R-PA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Ann Wagner (R-MO), Brian Mast (R-FL), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Ken Buck (R-CO), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Mark Green (R-TN), Andy Barr (R-KY), Greg Steube (R-FL), Dan Meuser (R-PA), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), August Pfluger (R-TX), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Peter Meijer (R-MI), Young Kim (R-CA), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL).