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January 18, 2023
Punchbowl News, in partnership with Google, is spotlighting four elected officials at the center of their state and local economies. The Leaders highlights their successes and the lessons they’ve learned along the way as they apply innovative approaches to job creation, economic growth and sustainability.
Read the fourth profile on Rep. Nancy Mace, who wants to boost small businesses by easing federal regulations.
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Happy Wednesday morning.
Let’s talk about the Office of Congressional Ethics, the House Ethics Committee and the GOP rules package for the 118th Congress.
The rules package recently approved by the House on a party-line vote essentially puts OCE – the independent ethics watchdog – on hold, at least until House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can name new Democratic board members (we have some news on this below.) Two, possibly three board members, depending on who you ask.
House Republicans also included a provision in the rules package that impacts OCE staff, although there’s some confusion here too. We’ll explain.
The GOP rules package imposes term limits on all OCE board members – three from each party plus an alternate. Under the new restriction, board members can only serve for two Congresses. This is the same time limit OCE board members faced back when the office was created in 2008.
However, in this case, only Democratic board members are impacted. Whether it’s two or all three Democrats on the board is a little hazy. It may be just two (retired Gen. Belinda Pinckney and former Democratic Rep. Karan English of Ariz.), since a third – former Rep. Mike Barnes (D-Md.) – may not be affected. Barnes, currently chair of the OCE board, was an alternate board member for some period, and it’s unclear if that counts toward the two-term limit.
All this matters because of the other OCE change that Republicans instituted. The GOP rules package states:
That means there has to be at least one Democratic board member in place – along with the three GOP board members – to appoint OCE staff. If there’s no staff, OCE can’t function.
Again, as with the board-member provision, there’s some question whether this affects only new or all OCE staffers.
Government watchdog groups have slammed Republicans for these moves, accusing them of “gutting” OCE. That’s not quite true, but 1) OCE doesn’t have a lot of friends in the House GOP leadership; 2) Republicans have tried to get rid of OCE before. So you can understand why watchdog groups are upset.
But here’s some news – Jeffries plans to name his OCE board picks in time to meet the 30-day deadline for voting on staffers (and getting the office back in operation.) Here’s Christie Stephenson, Jeffries’ spokesperson:
The House voted on the rules package on Jan. 9, meaning Jeffries has until early February to announce his picks. There are some restrictions on OCE board members – they can’t have been lobbyists for at least a year, they can’t run for office for several years after leaving OCE or engage in political activity while serving. These rules normally make it difficult to find board members. Yet this controversy has Democrats looking to move quickly.
Now let’s talk about the Ethics Committee. Another change that Republicans implemented allows anyone to file a complaint with the Ethics panel. Up until now, only lawmakers were able to file complaints. The public could file with OCE, but not Ethics.
This cuts both ways. The knock on OCE – which lacks subpoena authority or the ability to sanction members – is that a “complaint factory” has grown up around it. Outside groups from both parties file a complaint, leak it to the press, OCE calls for an investigation and then Ethics finds no major violation. This results in bad headlines more than real checks on bad behavior, per OCE critics.
The Ethics Committee, though, doesn’t have to disclose that it’s received a complaint, meaning everything the secretive panel does disappears into a black hole. OCE reports, on the other hand, eventually come out if they’re sent on to the Ethics Committee.
– John Bresnahan
News: House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) is training his fire on the Penn Biden Center, seeking a wide range of information about who had access to the think tank’s D.C. office, as well as the center’s sources of funding.
The effort is the latest development in Comer’s probe of how classified documents in the possession of then-Vice President Joe Biden ended up in “an unsecure closet” at a D.C. office building.
In a letter to University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill, Comer writes that “it is imperative to understand whether any Biden family members or associates gained access to the classified documents while stored at the Penn Biden Center.”
Read the full letter, exclusively shared with Punchbowl News, here.
Comer is requesting a list of all Penn Biden Center employees, the names of everyone with keycard access to the center, a visitor log of anyone who met with Biden and “all documents and communications related to security at the Penn Biden Center.”
Comer set a Feb. 1 deadline for Penn officials to turn over the information he’s requested.
The Oversight chair has been stymied so far in his request for a visitors log for Biden’s Wilmington, Del., residence — where Biden’s lawyers discovered other classified documents — as the president’s legal team said such a list doesn’t exist.
Comer is also seeking information on documents related to donations “from China to UPenn and/or the Penn Biden Center from January 20, 2017 to the present” and “all Chinese donors – and the individual amount donated – to UPenn and/or the Penn Biden Center” over the same time period. In addition, the Kentucky Republican is requesting documentation covering how the Penn Biden Center solicited donations.
As Comer’s letter notes, the think tank was launched in February 2017 in conjunction with Penn’s hiring of Biden as a largely ceremonial professor.
“The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center,” Comer writes.
Substantial overlap exists between Biden’s former Penn colleagues and members of his current administration. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl both worked at the Penn Biden Center.
Former Penn President Amy Gutmann — who brought Biden to the school — was nominated by Biden as U.S. Ambassador to Germany in 2021. Biden also named David Cohen, the former chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees, as U.S. Ambassador to Canada.
Comer’s investigation is just one of a number of House GOP queries into Biden’s document handling, along with efforts from Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio).
But due to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint a special counsel to look into the matter, many of the requests for information about the documents scandal are likely to be turned down while the DOJ probe unfolds.
— Max Cohen
It’s clear that one of the defining political fights of 2023 will be the battle over raising the debt limit. Speaker Kevin McCarthy wants to cut a deal to raise the borrowing cap in return for spending cuts, including to entitlement programs. The White House and Hill Democrats refuse to talk until the cap is raised. If anyone tells you they’re confident how this ends up, they’re lying.
We wanted to review a few points this morning to help frame your thinking.
| → | First of all, if you don’t already, you should subscribe to the Wrightson Research Team’s ICAP Daily Summary. They are the best at understanding the technical details surrounding the debt limit and the “X Date” of when it’s actually reached. |
Here’s what they’re saying about the default deadline:
So according to Wrightson, we could be looking at a debt limit fight sometime in the middle of July. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested last week that the deadline won’t be before “early June,” but she didn’t provide a clear deadline.
However, if there isn’t a deal between Congress and the White House by mid-to-late May or early June – potentially weeks before a technical default – financial markets will start to worry.
| → | What’s the GOP backup plan? The Washington Post reported that Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy (Texas) and other conservatives are drafting a “payment prioritization plan” to cover roughly 80% of federal programs in the case of a default. Having seen this debate before – 2011 most notably – this will be extraordinarily difficult to do. Wait until lawmakers are getting calls and emails from hundreds or even thousands of constituents about their own programs being slashed. Any Republican in a swing district is going to have a big problem with this. |
| → | The White House and Democratic leaders have seized on the issue to hammer Republicans and portray them as extreme. |
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday “We should be dealing with the debt ceiling without — without conditions. It is important. We’re not going to work our way around this; we’re not going to negotiate on this.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer added this statement:
– Jake Sherman
We’re spending time at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting in Washington this week. We look forward to bringing you insights offered by local leaders from around the country during the next few days.
Punchbowl News’ CEO Anna Palmer sat down with Elaine O’Neal, Democratic mayor of Durham, N.C., Tuesday night to talk about the nation’s housing crisis, working across the aisle and gentrification.
Here are some of the major takeaways:
| → | O’Neal highlighted the importance of partnerships when it comes to building new homes. |
One of the first lessons she learned on the job, O’Neal said, was that just being mayor wasn’t enough to convince all the players to get involved. It’s a complex issue that takes time and trust to make meaningful progress.
| → | O’Neal argued that some lawmakers in Washington had forgotten “who they are working for.” |
The North Carolina Democrat said that some partisan squabbling over policy was perfectly fine. But on basic issues – such as providing health care and housing – policymakers at the federal level have spent too much time bickering.
Here’s more from O’Neal:
| → | O’Neal said if a city wants to improve the lives of people in marginalized communities, policymakers need to bring them into the process too. The mayor reached out to individuals she’d known from within the justice system during her prior experience as a judge, and that helped make a difference. |
We also heard from Fidelity Investments’ Pamela Everhart, senior vice president and head of regional public affairs and community relations, who detailed a new $250 million program directed at college students from marginalized communities.
Titled the “Invest in My Education” program, Everhart said that beyond scholarship funding, Fidelity would put a premium on mentorship and guidance for students, as well as access to mental health resources.
— Brendan Pedersen
Read API’s plan to learn more about how we can Make, Move and Improve energy.
| → | Kate Bennett, who covered the White House for CNN, is joining Invariant, the lobbying shop founded by Heather Podesta. Bennett, who many of us worked with at Politico, is joining Invariant’s growing strategic communications and public affairs team. Here’s the press release for more. |
– Jake Sherman
| → | House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is endorsing Rep. Jim Banks’ (R-Ind.) Senate bid. |
This is a good pickup for Banks, who also has nabbed the endorsement of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
– Jake Sherman
Read API’s plan about making, moving and improving energy.
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Punchbowl News, in partnership with Google, is spotlighting four elected officials at the center of their state and local economies. The Leaders highlights their successes and the lessons they’ve learned along the way as they apply innovative approaches to job creation, economic growth and sustainability.
Read the fourth profile on Rep. Nancy Mace, who wants to boost small businesses by easing federal regulations.
