Today, the Committee on Financial Services held its Organizational Meeting for the 117th Congress. Despite having the slimmest majority in nearly a century, Democrats continue to attempt to consolidate power and reject commonsense proposals.
Committee Democrats opposed many of Republicans’ non-partisan amendments to the committee rules package, even going so far as to attempt to rewrite the history of the committee’s own actions.
Ranking Member McHenry offered the first amendment, which would require subpoenas only be issued either by agreement of the Chair and Ranking Member, or by a vote of the full committee to authorize such a subpoena.
“Today, I propose again that every member of this committee should have an opportunity to weigh in on a subpoena before it is issued. Subpoenas are signed by the Chair, but they are issued in the name of the House Committee on Financial Services. Each of us has a stake in the validity of those subpoenas, and we deserve a chance to go on record,” Ranking Member McHenry said of his amendment.
This amendment is needed even more now than it was when it was last offered two years ago. In deciding a lawsuit over the validity of subpoenas issued by the Committee during the 116th congress, the Supreme Court increased the standard by which congressional subpoenas must be judged, permanently diminishing the investigative power of the Congress, as Ranking Member McHenry explained:
“Two years ago, Democrats rejected this amendment that I’m offering today. My colleagues said … there was no reason to change. Well, two years later we do have reason to change, and that is a 7-to-2 decision by the Supreme Court in July of last year invalidating subpoenas from this committee dealing with President Trump’s financial records that were unilaterally issued by the chair.”
However, Chairwoman Waters, in an attempt to rewrite history and hold on to this unilateral subpoena authority, claimed things had gone differently for her:
“This practice has been used responsibly and should be continued in this Congress. … But let me remind the Ranking Member, that The Supreme Court held my subpoenas are constitutional.”
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Clearly, the facts were not on the Chairwoman’s side. Nevertheless, Democrats rejected the amendment in a vote of 24 to 29.
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Andy Barr (KY-6), offered an amendment to require the Chair or her designee to copy the Ranking Member on the electronic service of subpoenas, in an effort to ensure bipartisan cooperation on investigations conducted by the committee.
“This amendment would simply update the rules to include the minority when a subpoena is issued and served electronically. Electronic service of subpoenas comes with many advantages including speed and preserving a record of service. Another benefit is the capability to easily inform the minority after the point in time at which a subpoena is served. … What this would mean in practice is that your staff would simply CC my staff when a subpoena is transmitted by email,” explained Subcommittee Ranking Member Barr.
The committee adopted his amendment by voice vote.
An additional amendment, offered by Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets Ranking Member Bill Huizenga (MI-2), would have reined in out-of-control deficit spending by requiring the committee to offset any new authorizations of spending with comparable reductions in authorizations elsewhere, as Subcommittee Ranking Member Huizenga explained:
“As we work to defeat COVID-19 and revitalize our economy, we can’t lose track of a fundamental truth, which is: budgets do matter. … This amendment would take the first small step in controlling government spending and getting Congress to stick to a budget by requiring that any bill we report out of this committee — Democrat or Republican bill, it doesn’t matter — that creates new spending must contain an offset of an equal amount to pay for that new spending.”
Democrats voted along part lines, in a vote of 23 to 29, to reject this amendment and the fiscal responsibility it attempted to bring back to Congress.
Finally, Subcommittee Ranking Member Barr offered a second amendment, this time to require any bill reported out of the Committee that focuses on China to be targeted toward changing the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party and produce demonstrable results.
“This amendment underscores a bipartisan approach to national security legislation that Republicans and Democrats of the committee have long embraced. … Republicans and Democrats have worked together to ensure that sanctions and other financial restrictions are held accountable for results. These aren’t feel-good measures, and they’re not a way just to vent, sanctions and financial restrictions are tools to advance our national security interests,” said Subcommittee Ranking Member Barr in explaining the importance of his amendment.
Committee Democrats opposed what should have been a bipartisan amendment in a vote of 23 to 30.
The committee voted to adopt the rules of the committee, as amended, by voice vote. The committee also adopted, by unanimous consent, a pair of resolutions naming majority and minority members to the Committee’s six subcommittees.
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