Whereas providing false or misleading testimony to the Congress is a crime under sections 1001, 1621, and 1623 of chapter 18, United States Code; Whereas testimony given before Congress, or any of the committees and subcommittees thereof, must be truthful; Whereas honest and forthright testimony is essential to the oversight and investigational authority of Congress; Whereas the investigative authority of Congress has been an integral part of its operations since its establishment; Whereas the inquisitorial powers of the legislature were even discussed in the Federal Convention of 1787, prior to the ratification of the Constitution; Whereas, in 1792, a committee of the House of Representatives conducted an investigation into military losses to Native American Tribes, and the committee was explicitly empowered to to call for such persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist their inquiries ; Whereas Roger Stone, a longtime political strategist, was recently arrested, with 29 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and 17 vehicles arriving at his home for a predawn raid; Whereas the indictment of Stone revealed that the crimes for which he was arrested were one count of obstruction of proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering; Whereas Stone is one of a very small number of people who have been arrested for the crime of lying to Congress; Whereas it has been widely recognized by Members of Congress, legal scholars, and historians that lying to Congress is a crime for which very few people have been prosecuted; Whereas in a 2007 essay in the Quinnipiac Law Review, Mr. P.J. Meitl wrote that almost no one is prosecuted for lying to Congress , and that only six people have been convicted of perjury or related charges in relation to Congress in the last sixty years