The clock will be running for lawmakers during former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony on Capitol Hill, The Hill reported.
According to The Hill, the current setup will limit Mueller's questioning to two hours for each committee Wednesday.
That plan means all 22 members of the House Intelligence Committee will get a question, as will 22 members of the 41-person House Judiciary Committee. The questions will be evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans.
But 13 Democrats and six Republicans will not get a question under the current plan, The Hill reported. In most cases, the newer members in Congress and on the committee will be excluded.
All in all, lawmakers who can grill Mueller will have just a few minutes to do so.
"We've got to be strategic, we've got to understand why we want to talk to him in the first place and that's to get answers to some unanswered questions," Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., told The Hill. "Wednesday will be here before we know it and we need to make sure that we utilize that time in the most effective and most efficient way."
Republicans, meanwhile, blasted House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., over negotiations for Mueller's testimony, accusing him of ceding time to lawmakers on the Intelligence panel and allowing Mueller to dictate the terms.
"This committee got rolled, let's admit it," Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the panel's top Republican, complained, The Hill reported. "I guess [Intelligence Committee] chairman [Rep. Adam] Schiff [D-Calif.] gets to dictate terms and the witness gets to dictate terms."
Former House Oversight chair Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said the time limit on questions is not unusual — and Mueller is not going to spill his guts no matter who's questioning him.
"There are a handful of good questioners on both sides but only a handful," he said in remarks Thursday on Fox News' "The Story."
"He is not going to answer anything else outside the four corners of his report," he added. "Mueller is not going to give you any interesting answers. I have quizzed him before."
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