As More House GOP Committees Embrace Poisonous Issa Model, Ranking Democrats Fight Back
From Huffington Post:
The top Democrats on 16 House committees sent a letter to all members on Tuesday condemning Republicans' recent push to expand the power of committee chairmen to unilaterally issue subpoenas without any debate or vote.
"For decades, responsible committee chairmen – both Democratic and Republican – recognized that the coercive power of subpoenas should be used only as a last resort, and they obtained the concurrence of the ranking member or called a committee vote before issuing subpoenas…This year House Republicans are changing the rules to give some chairmen unfettered authority to issue subpoenas unilaterally, adopting an abusive model embraced only by Senator Joe McCarthy, former Rep. Dan Burton, and Rep. Darrell Issa."…The letter is signed by Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Corrine Brown (Fla.), John Conyers (Mich.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Eliot Engel (N.Y.), Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas), Sander Levin (Mich.), Nita Lowey (N.Y.), Frank Pallone (N.J.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), Adam Smith (Wash.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Maxine Waters (Calif.). All are ranking Democrats on House committees.
…until recently, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was the only House panel where a chairman unilaterally issued subpoenas. Issa went on a subpoena-issuing bonanza in his recent role as chairman of that committee.
At least seven committee chairmen will have that authority in this Congress, including those on Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Oversight and Government Reform, Judiciary, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Science, Space and Technology. Aside from Oversight, all of these chairmen are getting this authority for the first time…Many of the chairmen with this new authority have jurisdiction over President Barack Obama's signature issues. Judiciary, for example, has jurisdiction over immigration matters. Energy and Commerce oversees health care reform.
From POLITICO:
Democratic lawmakers are harshly criticizing House Republicans for altering committee rules governing how chairmen can subpoena witnesses and documents…the Democrats slams the GOP conference for changing rules on a number of House committees to make it easier for Republicans to subpoena witnesses without consultation or approval from minority lawmakers - an effort that came as Republicans are preparing aggressive oversight efforts for President Barack Obama's final two years in office. Sixteen Democrats, all ranking members of House committees, accused Republicans of attempting to create Darrell Issa-like committee structures, referring to the former Oversight and Government Reform chairman who was criticized by Democrats for his dogged probes into the White House.
Cummings has been leading the charge against what Democrats argue is Republican over-reach into the Obama administration…Recently Cummings has sparred with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House's Benghazi Committee over how the GOP lawmakers governing the panel failed to include Democrats in key interviews with witnesses. Cummings has also clashed with Issa' successor, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) over the rules for the Oversight panel.
In January, Republicans moved to give a number of key committees, including the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Financial Services Committee new subpoena powers. A handful of other committees also considered changing their governing rules…For a number of panels, rule change would eliminate long-standing requirements that the chairmen either consult or get consent from the minority party before issuing subpoenas for testimony and documents or hold a majority vote. The committees who saw rule changes include panels with oversight into controversial Obama policies like the Dodd-Frank financial regulations law, immigration and Obamacare.