Economy

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement on reports that President Trump diverted $10 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “It’s shameful but not surprising that the President would rob FEMA to pay for his callous policy of ripping families apart. He has learned absolutely nothing from his failure in Puerto Rico and is n... Read more

Mitch Miller Political winds are again swirling around FEMA as the organization races to get ready for Hurricane Florence and what’s expected to be a major recovery effort after it makes landfall. FEMA Administrator Brock Long and the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday rejected a Democratic senator’s claim that nearly $10 million was diverted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) charged that the Trump ad... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement on the Government Accountability Office’s report, “Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Assessing Fiscal Risks and Improving Workforce Management Would Help Achieve Strategic Goals.” “This report, which I requested along with the DC-area delegation, confirms that WMATA has significant financial challenges and that employee accountabi... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH), co-chair of the House Freedom of the Press Caucus, sent a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the Trump administration to call on the Chinese government to cease its repressive policies and human rights violations of Uyghurs and ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjian Uyghur Autonomous Region, including actions taken against family members of ... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to cancel a 2.1 percent pay raise for civilian federal employees scheduled to take effect in January of next year: “President Trump is feeling cornered and lashing out by cancelling a modest, planned pay increase for our dedicated federal workforce. His tax bill exploded the deficit, and now he is trying to balance... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released a new congressional report that found the Republican tax law will disproportionately hurt Northern Virginia homeowners, especially those with home equity loans. The report, prepared by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, details how the new law’s changes to the mortgage interest deduction, home equity loan deduction and state ... Read more

Steve Benen There have been reports for months about Donald Trump’s keen interest in the FBI’s headquarters and its future. Axios reported last month, for example, that the president doesn’t just rant about the current building’s appearance, he also “wants to oversee the project at an excruciating level of detail.” The piece added that there’s been a debate ongoing for quite a while about whether to leave the FBI where it is or relocate the bureau’s headquarters to a nearby suburb. An Axios sou... Read more

Jonathan O'Connell Officials from the General Services Administration may have misled Congress about the White House’s role in canceling a decade-long search for a new FBI headquarters campus in the Washington suburbs last year, according to a government watchdog report released Monday. GSA officials also misrepresented the costs of their replacement plan, making it seem like their replacement plan -- to build a new downtown headquarters -- would cost less than the original plan when it would a... Read more

Niels Lesniewski President Donald Trump was more intimately involved in the debate over relocating the FBI headquarters than Congress was told, a new inspector general report finds. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, a Democrat representing parts of Northern Virginia, said the report he requested from the General Services Administration IG confirmed his suspicions that the president was involved in the decision to scrap plans to vacate the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building on Pennsylvania Ave., and move the a... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released the follow statement on today’s GSA Inspector General’s report on the FBI headquarters decision. Connolly requested the report in February 2018. “I initiated the Inspector General’s investigation into the procurement of a new consolidated headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). I did so because I was concerned that the Administration’s decisions to cancel an... Read more