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March 10, 2023
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PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
Happy Friday morning.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) is on a quest to prove himself as the kingpin of GOP investigations. Not everyone is happy about it.
In a little more than two months as chair, Comer has launched a barrage of probes into everything from the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to Ukraine aid to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
This week alone, the Oversight Committee held seven hearings. These sessions covered the origin of COVID-19, the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, AI advances, oversight of the Office of Personnel Management, inflation and pandemic spending. A hearing on the Biden family’s business dealings was postponed.
It’s an ambitious workload commensurate with Comer’s desire to hold the Biden administration accountable. Comer and his allies insist the range of investigations are well within their marching orders.
But some GOP members and aides have expressed concerns that the Kentucky Republican may be spreading himself too thin and inserting his committee into other panels’ business.
For instance, the Oversight Committee fired off letters to Biden administration officials last month requesting documents and information on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. That chaotic military operation – already the subject of numerous hearings and reports – is seen as squarely within the portfolio of the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services’ committees.
“I was a little surprised by the letter,” Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told us, referring to Comer’s Afghanistan inquiries. “But we’ve talked since then. We’re working it out.”
McCaul noted that Oversight will center many of its efforts on inspector general reports and will likely have a narrower focus than other committees of jurisdiction. The Texas Republican says it will be okay “as long as we’re working in concert, which we are.”
The Oversight Committee has jurisdiction over the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, panel aides noted to us.
But Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member on Armed Services, said Republicans are trying to politicize the withdrawal in order to damage President Joe Biden and Democrats politically in 2024.
“Given what happened with Benghazi, it seems almost guaranteed the Republicans are going to [go at this in the] most crass, partisan way,” Smith said. “We have set up a bipartisan, bicameral commission that is looking into this. It seems like they are going to play politics with it from every angle they can think of.”
Comer, the affable and popular Oversight Committee chair, is now in his fifth House term, but only his first as a full committee chair. Comer – whose panel has extraordinarily wide jurisdiction – defended its hectic schedule.
“Sometimes we get criticized for not doing enough. But then we get criticized for doing too much,” Comer said when we asked him about his panel’s wide-ranging investigations. “Just because we request information doesn’t mean we’re going to be the committee that has a full hearing on it.”
But Comer’s letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last month requesting information on the Ohio train derailment raised eyebrows in GOP circles as well. Some Republicans thought the probe is overreaching on an issue better served by either the Energy and Commerce or Transportation and Infrastructure panels.
“There’s a big difference between oversight where you have expertise and oversight to churn out press releases,” a House GOP aide said of Comer. “Everyone thought he’d learn from prior chairmen and work in a more coordinated way. It’s been quite the opposite.”
Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) – who represents East Palestine – have scheduled a March 28 hearing with EPA and Ohio environmental officials on the disaster. Johnson chairs the environment, manufacturing and critical materials subcommittee on Energy and Commerce.
Johnson and Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) are also planning to introduce a bipartisan rail safety package next week, we’re told.
Transportation Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) told us his committee isn’t going to investigate the train derailment until the NTSB completes its review.
Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who also sits on Oversight, has been working with Comer on several areas, including probes into Hunter and James Biden. Jordan told us the two communicate “all the time” and sometimes their work is bound to cross over.
“We’re gonna do stuff in our committee. He’s going to do stuff on his committee, and if there’s overlap, and he’s doing stuff that we’re doing too … the most important thing is that the American people get the facts, we propose legislation and we address things in the appropriations process,” Jordan said.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), former chair of the Oversight committee, came to Comer’s defense as well. Issa said the Oversight panel is “supposed to look at everything.”
“It’s sometimes best to have two different committees looking at an issue because they see it differently,” Issa noted.
— Max Cohen, Mica Soellner and John Bresnahan
INSIDE THE HOUSE
Scalise dishes on H.R. 1: The House’s energy package
H.R. 1 is the title typically given to the House majority’s signature piece of legislation. For House Democrats last Congress, it was a voting-rights bill. For Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, it’s a large-scale energy package.
The Lower Energy Costs Act will be a compilation of a number of pieces of legislation currently being developed in the Energy and Commerce, Natural Resources and Transportation and Infrastructure committees.
The legislation will be introduced next Tuesday and voted on during the last week of March – just before April’s Passover and Easter recess.
Scalise gave us a buzz Thursday afternoon to preview the legislation.
What does this bill do? Here’s what Scalise said:
Energy policy of this variety is standard fare in a House Republican majority – and it’s what House GOP leaders promised to take up if they won control of the chamber. This is a topic that Scalise and McCarthy are both animated about.
But in our estimation you should view this legislation as a menu of options for energy add-ons in future talks with the Biden administration. There’s a sense among some House Republican leadership aides that McCarthy and Scalise may push for energy policy as part of a broader debt-limit negotiation.
Here’s what Scalise said when we asked him about that:
Of course, Democrats have rejected many of these policies in the past over climate-change concerns.
This package will pass the House. Energy policy always unites a House GOP majority. It won’t pass the Senate. But keep an eye on what happens on this front during the next six to eight months.
– Jake Sherman
DIGITAL DONNYBROOK
Emmer, Barr battle for crypto’s future
It’s already been a wild week for crypto, and Thursday saw two of Washington’s most important players for crypto policy battle in dueling – and consequential – addresses.
Start with the speech from Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision. Barr told the Peterson Institute for International Economics that the U.S. central bank was putting together a “specialized team of experts” to supervise the crypto industry.
And while the Biden administration regulator was careful to acknowledge the “potential public benefits” of crypto, Barr was unsparing on the risks regulators have seen in the space:
None of this should come as a shock. Bank regulators under the Biden administration have taken an increasingly aggressive approach to limiting the banking system’s exposure to digital assets, and the coming liquidation of the crypto-connected Silvergate Bank is just the latest validation of that strategy.
Which made a series of remarks from House Majority Whip Tom Emmer on Thursday that much more significant. Emmer has long been one of crypto’s top boosters in Congress, and he’s now one of the most powerful members of the House.
Emmer told the Cato Institute that the Biden administration was “willing to trade Americans’ right to financial privacy” by exploring a central bank digital currency, which would be a crypto-based version of the U.S. dollar.
The Treasury Department has shown a keen interest in a CBDC, while the Fed has been considerably more cautious. But for Emmer, the greatest risk to crypto – which is to say, to the future of U.S. financial innovation – is too much government involvement.
“These bureaucrats, with their partners in the private sector who are using the existing two-tier banking system and want to protect it,” are trying to kill crypto, Emmer said.
Here’s more from Emmer:
We don’t think most of the Republican conference thinks about crypto exactly like the Emmer does right now. Some have argued a U.S. digital dollar could bolster national security, for instance.
But seniority, experience and power can go a long way towards convincing colleagues to think a certain way – especially if it means a united front to oppose Democrats.
– Brendan Pedersen
AND THERE’S MORE
The Bagel Caucus goes bipartisan – and shuts the press out
As astute readers of Punchbowl News well know, we’re very interested in the comings and goings of the House’s Bagel Caucus. In the canon of caucuses for our august institution, the Bagel Caucus is a true phenomenon. It has unified all corners of the Capitol around a higher good: bagels.
Now, we have our quibbles with some of the stipulations that bind this caucus together. The dumping on D.C. bagels is a bit too much for us. We will concede the superiority of New York bagels. Let’s not go overboard, however.
But we have some news for you: The House Bagel Caucus has taken a significant step backwards. They’re closing their next meeting – a bipartisan bagel nosh – to the press. The last meeting was open to the press and drew a big crowd.
The House is supposed to be open, unafraid of outside examination and responsive to the public. Yet on this, the caucus’ chair, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), has fallen short.
– Jake Sherman
THE MONEY GAME
Inside a big-ticket DCCC fundraiser
New: The House Democratic leadership is gathering this morning for a big-dollar breakfast fundraiser benefitting the DCCC.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, House Democratic Caucus Pete Aguilar, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, along with Reps. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) and Scott Peters (D-Calif.), will be in attendance.
Tickets to the breakfast range from $1,000 to $15,000. John Michael González and Tim Molino of the Tiber Creek Group are leading the event.
More than $275,000 has been raised so far.
— Max Cohen
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