Tag: House Oversight Committee

House Oversight Committee demands release of $6B USPS vehicle contract

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The House Oversight and Reform Committee is demanding that the U.S. Postal Service release a contract with a private company for a new delivery vehicle fleet that is reportedly worth up to $6 billion. 

Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday voicing several concerns about potential interference and asking for documents relating to a contract with Oshkosh Defense. 

The Postal Service is contracted to purchase up to 165,000 new fuel-efficient or electric postal vehicles. Continue reading.

House Oversight chair has ‘grave concerns’ the Trump team is trashing White House records

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House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney expressed “grave concerns” Monday that the outgoing Trump administration “may be disposing” of presidential records in violation of federal law.

Maloney (D-N.Y.) voiced her concerns in a letter to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero. She referenced the Presidential Records Act and the requirements the post-Watergate statute imposes on President Donald Trump and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which Ferriero heads.

The law says that the president can’t get rid of presidential records, including memos, emails, and notes, without first getting “the views, in writing, of the Archivist concerning the proposed disposal.” The archivist must “request the advice” of several congressional committees—including the House Oversight Committee—regarding such proposals to see if the records in question “may be of special interest to the Congress” or if congressional consultation may be “in the public interest.” Continue reading.

Hell hath no fury like a president suckered

Washington Post logoRep. Jim Jordan (R-Anger Management Class) followed the plan to the letter.

The House Oversight Committee held a video Q&A Tuesday with Christi Grimm, the civil servant who earned a verbal lashing from President Trump, and got replaced from her position as top in-house watchdog at the Department of Health and Human Services after she documented critical shortages of protective equipment at the nation’s hospitals.

As the ranking Republican on the panel, Jordan couldn’t very well defend Trump’s quashing of yet another whistleblower, and he didn’t try. Instead, he did what president and party demand of him: He blamed China. Continue reading.

House Democrats ask Secret Service for details about its payments to Trump’s company

Washington Post logoThe House Oversight Committee on Wednesday asked the Secret Service to provide a full accounting of its payments to President Trump’s private company after The Washington Post revealed that the Secret Service had been charged as much as $650 per night for rooms at Trump clubs.

In a letter to the Secret Service, signed by Chair Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and member Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), the committee asked for records of payments to Trump properties, and copies of contracts between the Secret Service and Trump clubs.

Last week, The Post reported that the Secret Service had been charged nearly $400 and as much as $650 per night for rooms at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, and charged $17,000 a month for a cottage that agents used at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. President Trump still owns his companies. These payments show he has an unprecedented — and largely hidden — business relationship with his own government. Continue reading.

House Oversight Committee sues Barr and Ross to enforce Census subpoenas

Axios logoThe House Oversight Committee filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Attorney General Bill Barr and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross for refusing to comply with subpoenas for documents related to the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Why it matters: The White House had previously claimed its aides were “absolutely immune” from congressional subpoenas. On Monday, a federal judge ruled former White House counsel Don McGahn must testify under subpoena in the ongoing House impeachment inquiry, giving House Democrats a stronger hand to enforce its other oversight requests.

The backdrop: The House voted 230-198 in July to hold Barr and Ross in criminal contempt for withholding subpoenaed materials. Democrats believe the administration’s reason for attempting to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census was a cover for a politically motivated effort to diminish the electoral power of Democrats by eliminating non-citizens from population statistics.

View the complete November 26 article on the Axios website here.

Legality of Wolf, Cuccinelli appointments to DHS questioned

Key House Democrats cite new documents in request for review

The leaders of the House Oversight and Homeland Security panels on Friday challenged the legality of recent top appointments at the Department of Homeland Security, including newly installed acting secretary, Chad Wolf.

Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., the acting Oversight and Reform Committee chairwoman, have asked the U.S. Comptroller General to conduct an “expedited review” to determine whether the Trump administration acted legally when it appointed both Wolf and his predecessor, Kevin McAleenan, as acting DHS secretary. They also question Wolf naming Ken Cuccinelli to serve as deputy director.

Both Democrats support their claim with new documents that show the administration may have violated succession rules when it placed McAleenan next in line after former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was pushed out in April, simply because it failed to change them.

View the complete November 15 article by Tanvi Misra on The Roll Call website here.

House panel is probing U.S. military use of Trump-owned property in Scotland

Washington Post logoThe House Oversight Committee is investigating why a financially struggling airport near a Trump-owned golf course in Scotland has seen an uptick in expenditures by the U.S. military since President Trump took office.

Chairman Elijah E. Cummings and Rep. Jamie Raskin, both Maryland Democrats, sent a letter to the Defense Department’s acting secretary, Patrick M. Shanahan, in June asking for all travel information pertaining to Pentagon personnel through the Glasgow Prestwick Airport, as well as visits to the Trump Turnberry golf resort.

In the letter, Cummings and Raskin say that the airport “reportedly has provided ‘cut-price rooms for select passengers and crew’ and ‘offered free rounds at Turnberry to visiting U.S. military and civilian air crews.’ ”

View the complete September 7 article by Colby Itkowitz and Missy Ryan on The Washington Post website here.

House panel approves subpoena for official White House communications

The Hill logoThe House Oversight and Reform Committee voted along party lines to authorize Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to subpoena for records from the White House in connection with an investigation into aides’ use of personal email and text applications for official business.

The panel voted 23-16 Thursday on a resolution that authorizes Cummings to subpoena White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for official records and communications sent or received by noncareer White House officials using private email and nonofficial text-based accounts.

“There are serious questions about this White House’s use of personal email and text accounts. We must issue these subpoenas to get our answers,” said Cummings at the business meeting Thursday morning.

View the complete July 25 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

‘We’re better than that!’: Top Democrat unleashes fury on Trump official over migrant children being left in ‘feces’

AlterNet logoHouse Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) brought down the hammer on acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Thursday over his department’s cruel treatment of migrant children.

“You feel like you’re doing a great job, right?” asked Cummings during the day’s committee hearing. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“We’re doing out level best in a very challenging —” McAleenan said, starting to answer, but Cummings cut him off.

“What does that mean?!” Cummings erupted. “What does that mean when a child is sitting in their own feces. Can’t take a shower. Come on, man! What’s that about?! None of us would have our children in that position. They are human beings. And I’m trying to figure out — and I get tired of folks saying, ‘Oh, oh they’re just beating up the border patrol. Oh, they’re just beating up on Homeland Security.’ What I’m saying is I want to concentrate on these children. And I want to make sure that they’re OK. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. It’s not the deed that you do to a child, it’s the memory. It’s the memory!”

View the complete July 18 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

House Democrats to hold hearing next week on treatment of migrant children

The Hill logoThe House Oversight and Reform Committee has scheduled a hearing next week to hear testimony from Trump administration officials about the separation and treatment of immigrant children at the southern border.

Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) has invited acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan to testify at a hearing on July 12. Neither have confirmed their appearance, according to the committee. 

“The Trump Administration’s actions at the southern border are grotesque and dehumanizing,” Cummings said in a statement Tuesday.

View the complete July 2 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.