The Response of a White House Lawyer to a Democratic Overstep in the Reform of the Department of the Judiciary of the United States
A top White House lawyer told two leading Republicans that their oversight requests will have to be re-examined after the GOP takes over the House next week.
Over the last several months the White House has been assembling a team of lawyers and other advisers to deal with a lot of oversight requests. Thursday’s letter is the first indication of the team’s approach – one that vows cooperation but nonetheless pushes back on what the White House views as oversteps.
After it was clear in November that Republicans would win enough seats in the House to take the majority from Democrats, Jordan and Comer began demanding records from the Biden administration. They set deadlines in December.
The Special Counsel to the President wrote that the two Republicans would need to resubmit their Requests after the new Congress starts next week.
The House and Congress have not delegated such authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen according to a letter written by a White House oversight lawyer.
We will review and respond to the requests in good faith if they come from the Committee in the 118th Congress. We expect the new Congress will undertake its oversight responsibilities in the same spirit of good faith,” Sauber wrote.
Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections and promised to investigate Democrats. Speaker Kevin McCarthy believes his conference will take on oversight of various federal agencies, including the Bidens.
House Judiciary Republicans responded to the White House’s letter on Twitter, accusing the administration of “playing games” and adding: “It shows how scared you are of important congressional oversight, particularly one where your administration targeted parents protesting at local school board meetings.”
In a statement, Comer said, “President Biden promised to have the most transparent administration in history but at every turn the Biden White House seeks to obstruct congressional oversight and hide information from the American people.”
Republicans say there are plenty of plans in store for overseeing the Justice Department and FBI. A push from hardline conservatives led to the formation of a new Judiciary sub panel about the weaponization of the federal government. The subpanel will investigate claims that government workers targeted Republicans. If needed, Jordan said they are prepared to issue subpoenas.
The Americans have made clear they expect their leaders in Washington to work together on top priorities, so we intend to work in good faith to provide appropriate information to Congress. That’s what the president will focus on, and we hope House Republicans join him,” Ian Sams, a spokesman for White House Counsel’s Office, said in a statement.
Sams believed House Republicans may be spending more time thinking about how to get booked on hannity than on working together to help the American people.
The chamber can look to pick up business and organize GOP-led committees now that the speaker has been selected and members are in the house.
When the House returns Monday, the top of the list will be to pass a new set of House rules.
House Republicans will be limited in their ability to pass bills through Congress with Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House – where the president can exercise veto power over legislation. Still, House Republicans will be able to push messaging bills that highlight their agenda.
Kevin McCarthy talked about his plans for power in an exclusive interview with CNN in the lead-up to themidterm elections. Those plans include tackling inflation, rising crime and border security, and he left the door open to launching eventual impeachment proceedings, which some of his members have already begun to call for.
The ability of Republicans and Democrats to work together will be tested by some policy issues, like funding the government.
The southern border. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other department officials were told to be prepared to testify by members of the House Judiciary Committee.
There is a withdrawal from Afghanistan. The decision by Biden to remove US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 led to a frantic attempt by many Afghans to flee the country, with devastating scenes of people clinging to the wings of planes as they attempted to escape. Republicans have said they are interested in probes into the events.
How did the swine flu start? When Jim Jordan first traveled to the United States to fight for the civil rights of the free and the ill
Covid-19 origins. The first question that needs to be answered in regards to the swine flu is how it started, according to Representative McMorris Rodgers. Two studies released last year both concluded that a seafood market in Wuhan, China, was most likely the epicenter for the virus.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan will hold his first investigative hearing Wednesday on border security. The Ohio Republican is a key player in the agenda of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
When Jordan arrived on Capitol Hill in 2007, he zeroed in on his quest to shrink the federal government as a member of the House Budget Committee. In one of his early floor speeches he stressed he was new to Washington, but said, “I’ve already learned the game is called spend at every opportunity.”
He was elected chair of the Republican Study Committee in 2010 because of his zeal to rein in federal spending. In that post he made it clear he saw himself as a check on his party.
“I like to tell folks we’re the conservative conscience for Republicans here in the nation’s Capitol. And our job is to make Republicans act like Republicans,” Jordan said in an interview on C-SPAN in 2010.
He wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself. The Freedom Caucus was founded by the GOP lawmaker. Their battles led to the resignation of then-Speaker JohneBoehner, who was from his home state.
In an interview with CBS in 2001, Boehner said Jordan was a political terrorist and that he had never seen a man who spent more time tearing things apart.
Eight years after opposing McCarthy’s first bid for speaker after Boehner stepped down, Jordan nominated him on the House floor and lobbied reluctant hardliners who didn’t think McCarthy was a true fiscal conservative, to back him.
“I believe Kevin McCarthy is the right person to lead us,” Jordan said. I really do. I wouldn’t be standing up giving a speech. I came in with Kevin. We came in the same time 16 years ago. We haven’t always agreed on everything. But I like his fight. I like his tenacity.”
At regular press conferences during the Senate trial Jordan argued Trump was being unfairly treated. “Democrats have never got over the fact that this new guy has never been in this town, never been in politics, this new guy came in here and is shaking this place up and that drives them crazy.”
Jordan has credibility in the far right of the Republican Party and now he is getting support from the center of the party. Keeping his investigations focused is one of the problems Jordan may face. He told NPR some lawmakers may be more concerned about getting on the air than telling the truth.
“You never know when the light is going to shine on you and you have to be ready and I think Jim was. And Jim did a great job, I thought, on the impeachment. Mulvaney told NPR that he talked to him regularly and that he was always on the ball.
Jim is more of an investigator than a legislator, that’s how I look at him. Jim would not be very happy on the committee. I think he wouldn’t be happy with the appropriations. But the man is made to run the Judiciary Committee.”
Texas Republican Chip Roy said Jordan was the best person to lead that new effort. “I don’t know anybody in town who is better prepared than Jim Jordan to go after the bureaucrats over in the executive branch and to bring a light to the weaponization of government against the American people. Roy told NPR he would do a great job.
Some House Republicans are already pressing for Jordan to move to impeach President Biden. For his part, the new Judiciary chair says that’s up to the speaker and the GOP conference.
Mulvaney warns that impeachment has become a political tool and should be kept for instances when there is solid evidence of high crimes. “I hope that the Republicans will go back to that standard if they end up impeaching Biden. It’s better to be for a really good reason.
California Democrat Ted Lieu sits on the Judiciary Committee and told NPR recently about the panel’s new chairman, “I believe he has very extreme views. I also believe that he believes in those views so I respect that. Unlike Kevin McCarthy who I believe doesn’t actually believe in the things he says.”
“It’s going to be a challenge, there’s no question, because lawmakers have learned that being on the right committee can make them famous and they like that.”
The House Republicans are Launching Their First Investigations into Democrats: James Comer on the Judiciary Committee’s First Hearing on the U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis
While on his way to vote, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer mentioned that he and his counterpart on the House Judiciary panel, Jim Jordan, were spending a lot of time together.
The congressman told NPR that they had breakfast together and worked together. “He knows what we’re doing.” We know he’s doing something. Our staffs are close, our committee rooms are next door to each other. So we work together really well.”
With the White House and Senate in Democratic hands, the hearings are part of a long laundry list the House GOP hopes to tackle this congressional session — a list that could also entail issuing subpoenas as part of their probes.
The Judiciary Committee’s first meeting will cover The Biden Border Crisis, a part of the GOP’s look into concerns regarding immigration and security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, Comer says the Oversight panel’s first hearing will focus on spending tied to the pandemic relief bills, which he claims didn’t get enough scrutiny when Democrats controlled the House.
There were lots of waste, fraud and abuse with respect to theStimulus funds, PPE, Loan fund, unemployment funds and so on. We are just going to start there and roll our sleeves up.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1152558713/house-republicans-are-launching-their-first-investigations-into-democrats
House Republicans are launching their first investigations into democrats: Jamie Raskin is one of the most serious occupants of the White House
Legislative oversight is the critical tool for ensuring that we’re actually implementing our public laws and programs. And that’s what we should be doing,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
“One thing that Congress has, we have a constitutional responsibility to oversee the Justice Department,” McCarthy said. “That also means these individuals are looking into something.” We have the power to do that.
“We’ll issue the subpoenas and try to get the information, documents that we need,” Jordan recently told reporters. They give us the runaround when they give us the runaround. I guess I sort of expect that.”
For example, both Comer and Raskin agreed that there could be legislative fixes to avoid concerns in the future of mishandled classified documents by occupants of the White House, given the recent discoveries tied to former President Trump during his time in office and President Biden as vice president in the Obama administration.
” I think that we all agree that there needs to be reform and that Raskin is one of them,” she said. “We are going to try to figure out the severity of the problem by speaking with the National Archives.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/01/1152558713/house-republicans-are-launching-their-first-investigations-into-democrats
Putting the Government in the Public Interest: Obstruction Rulers’ Role in the GOP-Republican Warrior Scenario
“What matters is that oversight is about doing the right thing and avoiding scandal mongering and sticking it to the other guys.” Ensuring the government is working for the people is the subject of public oversight.
That posture is part of a new larger battle that will play out publicly, pitting House Republicans against Democrats in what’s expected to be a long series of probes and hearings to come.