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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi discusses Democratic efforts to force Republicans to vote to defend President Trump at a July 14, 2017, news conference with, from left, Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Hank Johnson and Bill Pascrell.(Photo: Herb Jackson, USA TODAY Network)

House Democrats said Friday they are planning to use a series of parliamentary maneuvers this summer to force Republicans to vote to defend President Trump on an array of controversies.

With some openly talking of impeaching the president, Democrats on key committees joined Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to announce they would sponsor"resolutions of inquiry" seekinginformation about any business orcampaign connections to Russia, data about any enrichment his family or business receivefrom the government, and Trump's personal tax returns.

The resolutions would enable a member to force a vote in committee or potentially on the House floor. But it would take a major shift in Republican stances for the effort to produce anything other than a political fodder that could be used by Democrats in next year's midterm elections.

That's because Republicans overwhelmingly haveresponded to revelations about Trump's administration or campaign by voicing confidence in ongoing investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees and Robert Mueller, the former FBI director serving as a special counsel atthe Justice Department.

At a news conference, Pelosi called Republicans complicit in covering up scandals in the six-month-oldadministrationand indicated she did not expect the resolutions to succeed in uncovering the information said they were seeking.

"We will expose House Republicans' inaction, with their willful, shameful enabling," Pelosi said. "They have become enablers of the violation of our Constitution, that attack on the integrity of our elections, the security of our country. The integrity of our democracy is at stake. House Republicans will have to answer for their actions."

Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey used a resolution of inquiry in Marchwhen he tried to force the Ways and Means Committee to invoke its power under a 1924 law to require the IRS to turn over Trump's tax returns. It was defeated in a party-line vote.

Pascrell said Friday said he would introduce another resolution seeking the same disclosure, and he noted that the Watergate investigation during President Richard Nixon's administration took 26 months.

In an interview, he rejected a suggestion the effort was a political stunt.

"I resent that anybody wouldeven consider it to be a stunt," Pascrell said. He said his original letter on Feb. 1to Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, suggested there be a bipartisan request for Trump's taxes, in part to ensure that the president did not have a personal stake in changes to the tax code that are under consideration.

"I went out of my way for a very specific reasons which I've outlined to get the support of the chairman, that we do this together," Pascrell said. "I said to him, and I'll say it again, it's going to come out sooner or later, for better or worse. So why aren't we cooperating to do this?"

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