Equality

Griffin Connolly The second-highest ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is calling for a public hearing on the Trump administration’s reported wasteful spending on border security. The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security found that a staffing plan green-lighted by the president has been marred by wasted resources and overlapping responsibilities among employees and contractors. In one case, the government paid outside consulting firm Acc... Read more

Nicole Ogrysko Customs and Border Protection has issued Accenture Federal Services, the vendor the agency hired to help CBP recruit border patrol agents and officers more quickly, a partial stop work order. The agency coordinated with Accenture and has asked the vendor to “reduce emphasis on some elements of the contract to allow more emphasis on others,” a CBP spokeswoman wrote in an email to Federal News Network. Specifically, the agency asked Accenture to stop work on applicant processing, b... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released the following statement requesting an emergency hearing into reports of election fraud in the race for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District: “This is an appropriate end to the 115th Congress. While the Republican majority is once again chasing conspiracies, real election fraud is playing out right before us in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. We should see ev... Read more

Jenna Portnoy Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (Va.) and fellow Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee tried to persuade Republicans to issue dozens of subpoenas to investigate Trump administration policies, from the travel ban to family separation. But one issue Connolly plans to tackle as soon as Democrats take control of the House next year is a lower-profile one with wide-ranging consequences: the 2020 Census. Connolly, who expects to be appointed chairman of the subcommitt... Read more

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., about President Trump continuing to stand with Saudi Arabia following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and what Congress can do. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: For more on that, we're joined now by Representative Gerry Connolly. He's a Democrat from Virginia and a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He's among the members of Congress from both parties criticizing President Trump today for his stance on Saudi Arabia, and Jamal ... Read more

Robert McCartney Democrats’ takeover of the U.S. House in Tuesday’s election instantly strengthened the Washington region’s deep blue congressional delegation, a change that may advance local goals such as Metro funding, statehood for the District, and protecting federal workers and the Chesapeake Bay. “It’s the difference between being in the back seat and being the driver,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), whose district includes much of Montgomery County. Raskin is one of several Democrats... Read more

Chase Gunter Now that Democrats are set to control the House of Representatives -- and its oversight and budget committees – Congress' approach toward the 2020 census will likely see some significant changes. The most pressing oversight issue, which could have major implications for the accuracy of the count, is last year’s addition of the citizenship question, according to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). The question’s inclusion -- and the ongoing lawsuits over it -- presents a unique circumstanc... Read more

Paul Blumenthal and Chris D'Angelo After Democrats won control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, President Donald Trump will face actual oversight from Congress for the first time. His most controversial policies will immediately come under investigation ― as will the scandals that circled the first two years of his presidency. Trump’s family separation policy, efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, rollbacks of environmental regulations, the inclusion of a citizenship question ... Read more

Today, Reps. Elijah E. Cummings, Peter DeFazio, Gerald E. Connolly, Mike Quigley, and Dina Titus sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in light of new documents showing that when Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed two weeks ago that the “President wanted to save the government money” by blocking competitors from purchasing the existing FBI headquarters property across the street from the Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, White House officials had already warned internally that th... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent the following message, along with a copy of the U.S. Constitution, to President Trump in response to his unconstitutional proposal to end birthright citizenship. “Mr. President, your new Executive Order ending citizenship for children born in the US is patently unconstitutional. I am sending you a copy of the Constitution. Knowing your aversion to reading, I have highlighted... Read more