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April 7, 2023
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PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
Happy Friday morning.
The relationship between the chair and ranking member on the House Oversight Committee is never particularly warm. This is especially true if the majority party on the panel is investigating a president from the other party. There’s a long history to this. Just ask Bill Clinton and Dan Burton.
Now, fewer than 100 days into the 118th Congress, a war of words has broken out between Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee chair, and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat.
The power dynamics break down like this: It’s Comer’s job to relentlessly pursue President Joe Biden. It’s Raskin’s job, as hard as it may be, to protect the president and use the committee’s precedents to throw up roadblocks in the majority’s quest.
At issue in this flap: Comer’s investigation of the Biden family. Let’s pause here for a second and note that Republicans have made allegations of influence peddling by the Biden family a cornerstone of their new majority. They’ve taken aim at Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and the president’s brother, James Biden. Comer has promised to investigate these two and connect their actions to the president.
This battle pits Raskin, a constitutional law professor turned tormenter of former President Donald Trump, against Comer, a longtime politician who is a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Both men have their detractors in their respective parties. But they’re overall well liked.
In a letter Raskin sent Thursday evening, he accused Comer of essentially hiding the ball in the Biden investigation. Raskin wrote that Comer has repeatedly declared in public that he’s spoken to four individuals about the Biden family. This includes an appearance on Fox News, where Raskin said Comer was speaking to his “conservative audience.”
Yet Comer’s staff told Raskin’s aides that the Kentucky Republican’s claim wasn’t true and the committee has only spoken to two people.
Furthermore, Raskin accused Comer of refusing to provide Democrats with access to the hard drive from Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Here’s a bite from Raskin’s letter:
Comer fired off his own statement, accusing Raskin of “playing lawyer for the Biden family instead of engaging in real oversight for the American people.”
But most notably, Comer essentially cops to hiding information from Raskin. Here’s what Comer said:
In other words, Comer is conceding that he’s not sharing witness interviews with Raskin and Democratic aides.
The war of words is quite harsh, harkening back to the days of then Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) versus the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) during the Obama era.
The Oversight Committee didn’t begin the year with this poisonous vibe. Comer wished Raskin well as the Maryland Democrat underwent cancer treatments. Raskin responded warmly and told Comer he hoped “these expressions of concern and solidarity will become seeds of friendship.” The two men lightly pledged to work together.
But let’s be clear. The House Oversight Committee is a war zone. The committee tends to uncover a few embarrassing details every Congress mixed in with a huge number of whiffs. It’s safe to say, at this point, the two sides will find very little common ground – if any at all.
– Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Max Cohen
VOLUNTEER STATE CONTROVERSY
Democrats seize on Tennessee expulsions as national issue
Democrats from President Joe Biden on down have jumped on the expulsion of two Black members of the Tennessee General Assembly as a national issue, turning it into a debate over race, guns and power.
Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly expelled two Black Democratic lawmakers on Thursday – but not a white colleague – for violating the chamber’s rules on protests.
Democratic State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who are Black, were voted out, while Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman who also protested, was not. The move outraged their supporters in the building when it happened and Democrats across the country.
Biden called it “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed it as well:
Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said the move was openly racist:
Jones, Pearson and Johnson had joined with protestors in the chamber’s gallery last week in calling on state lawmakers to pass new gun safety laws following a horrific school shooting in Nashville that left six people dead, including three children. One of the Democrats held up a sign, while another used a bullhorn, complaining that their microphones had been cut off when they tried to call up gun safety bills.
Republican legislators were upset about the move and sought to retaliate against the three Democrats for their actions.
Yet according to Reuters, the Tennessee General Assembly had only expelled two members since the Civil War era – “one in 1980 for soliciting a bribe in exchange for blocking legislation and another in 2016 after being accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women.”
Democrats are pointing to recent moves by GOP-dominated legislatures in Idaho, Florida, Montana and Nebraska on abortion as other examples of what they see as Republican extremism, and they plan to try to exploit this in 2024 as they did last cycle. A victory by a Democratic candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election this week is seen as a sign of how powerful abortion rights is for many voters nationally in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision striking down Roe v. Wade.
State legislatures across the country are also involved in hugely emotional debates over transgender issues. The Biden administration proposed a new rule on Thursday that would allow schools to bar trans athletes from some school teams. But it’s not a full ban, as a number of states have already enacted.
Remember: House Democrats staged a sit-in on the U.S. Capitol floor in 2016 over the same issue – gun control. Then Speaker Paul Ryan termed the move a publicity stunt, but the GOP leadership didn’t take punitive action against Democrats.
– John Bresnahan
POST-CRISIS?
As bank crisis slows, here’s what Congress might pick up after recess
March in Washington was dominated by a regional banking crisis that regulators said could carry risks for the entire U.S. financial system.
At the moment, we think this “crisis” will mostly take the form of a slow-moving squeeze for the sector in the coming months, rather than a rapid collapse.
But bottom line: There’s only so much attention Congress will pay to a situation that’s not actively on fire. And we seem to be moving beyond that point with fears over banks’ health.
So we’ll also probably hear about some other stuff in financial policy after recess. Let’s break it down.
Executive accountability: When lawmakers return, there will certainly be hearings and more following the collapse of both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
Lawmakers leading the House and Senate financial services committees want former execs at SVB to testify. But we also anticipate some legislative activity here.
We wrote earlier this week that there’s significant bipartisan interest in making it easier for bank regulators to claw back executive pay at mismanaged institutions, and there’s already one such bill that’s been introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
We’re told that Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is expected to introduce new legislation focused on banks’ corporate governance and executive accountability after recess ends.
Cannabis banking reform: The month of April has long been associated with weed, and we expect this time to be no different.
Right now, cannabis policy watchers have their eyes glued on the Senate. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants a deal on cannabis, and he’s working with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to find a path forward with Republicans.
A good number of GOP senators, led by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), are open to a deal around the SAFE Banking Act. That bill would make it easier for banks to work with legal cannabis firms. If there’s a deal to be had there, we’ll hear about it after the April recess.
Which brings us to the House. Before the break, we asked Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) how cannabis banking reform was going on his side of the Hill.
He told us that conversations were ongoing, “but we’re not getting any closer to actually putting anything out yet, because there’s so much other stuff going on. The timing wouldn’t be right.”
But Joyce sounded like he’s looking forward to seeing what his colleagues in the Senate come up with. “Good conversation to be had, both in the Senate and House,” Joyce said.
Crypto redux: Introducing legislation on digital assets was a top priority for House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) before last month’s banking crisis.
Crisis notwithstanding, McHenry would still like to get around to that. McHenry told us during a Punchbowl News event last week that he’d like to “move forward” on stablecoin legislation “before it gets miserably hot here in D.C.”
Just how hot is “miserably” hot for the North Carolina Republican? Tough to say. But spring can get plenty hot in the nation’s capital.
– Brendan Pedersen
PRESENTED BY TIKTOK
TikTok takes concerns about data security seriously. We’re making significant operational changes to ensure layers of protection and oversight.
THE MONEY GAME
New: Jeffries, DelBene holding Seattle fundraising retreat
Leading House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are gathering next weekend in Seattle for a fundraising retreat with top donors. The event is the latest example of how the new generation of Democratic leadership is forging ahead in the money game during the post-Nancy Pelosi era.
DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene is hosting the retreat. In addition to Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu will attend.
“The DCCC continues to shatter fundraising records thanks to the leadership and work of Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Chair Suzan DelBene,” DCCC spokesperson Tommy Garcia told us. “The Seattle retreat will bring together local leaders, Democratic leadership, allies, and Democratic supporters to discuss how Democrats will win the House in 2024.”
Fundraising has been calmer this week due to numerous codels, Passover, Holy Week and the proximity to the end of the first quarter. But the Seattle event shows the cash race is heating up once again.
DelBene’s retreat is similar to what now-Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) did during his four-year tenure as DCCC chair. Luján would gather top donors, allies and members in Santa Fe. And of course, Pelosi hosts her infamous Napa Valley donor weekend every summer.
The DCCC is already off to a fast start in 2023. The House Democratic campaign arm brought in $12.7 million during February, a record amount for a February of a non-election year. Jeffries raised $9.3 million of the record-breaking total.
– Max Cohen and Heather Caygle
DOWNTOWN DOWNLOAD
| → | Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, has hired CGCN to lobby on “[g]eneral healthcare policy and biopharmaceutical manufacturing issues.” The key man on this account is John Stipicevic, formerly a close aide to Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Pfizer has in-house lobbyists in addition to the Altrius Group, Akin Gump, BGR Government Affairs, Cornerstone Government Affairs, Marshall and Popp and others. |
| → | Invariant has inked Carrot Fertility, a fertility health care company. Invariant will “[e]ducate lawmakers on Carrot Fertilitys reproductive health care platform and services.” |
| → | CTIA has hired Resolution Public Affairs to lobby on “[i]ssues related to the wireless industry.” |
– Jake Sherman
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Presented by Apollo Global Management
One size rarely fits all. That’s why Apollo provides custom capital solutions designed to help companies achieve their ambitious business goals. Think Credit New