News

Nicole Ogrysko With Democrats now in control of the House, the 116th Congress is gearing up for a “sea change” on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee’s existing members say “oversight” will surely play a fresh role in the new Congress. But members of the oversight community say the committee has plenty of room to tackle issues of “government reform.” “It’s clear that given the divided control of Congress … there’s not going to be a ton of space for real legislating in t... 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

Today, all Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued the following statement in response to multiple pipe bombs targeting government officials, press outlets, and others: “In light of the terrorist acts of the last 48 hours, we are issuing this united statement to condemn in the strongest terms any actions that threaten to commit violence against the people of the United States, including current or former elected officials, members of the media, individual America... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) joined Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), and a bipartisan group of 55 Members of Congress in requesting Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats to release information regarding the U.S. intelligence community’s potential knowledge of Saudi Arabia’s plot to capture journalist and American resident Jamal Khashoggi. The letter comes as the Trump Administration continues to downplay the involvement of the Saudi regime’s role in the murder o... Read more

Today, Reps. Don Beyer (VA-08), Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Anthony G. Brown (MD-04), and Jamie Raskin (MD-08) sent a letter to Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke urging him to extend the public comment period for the National Parks Service’s proposal to modify the types of demonstration activities allowed on the National Mall. The proposal included changes to how applications are processed, the locations where activities are allowed a... Read more

Faiz Siddiqui Members of the Washington region’s congressional delegation are asking the Metro Board to reconsider its plan to disband the Riders' Advisory Council, the only direct rider liaison for the panel. In a letter signed by the delegation’s Democrats, the officials say killing the RAC would set Metro back and a deal a blow to transparency for an agency trying to win back riders. The board is scheduled to vote on the plan at its Thursday meeting. “Eliminating the RAC would ... undermine ... Read more

Melanie Zanona Democrats itching to investigate President Trump’s possible conflicts of interests have zeroed in on a familiar presidential foe: the FBI. House Democrats released a trove of new documents this week that they say prove Trump was directly involved in canceling plans developed by the federal government to sell the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. Critics argue that Trump intervened because he wanted to prevent commercial developers from building a new property at the downtown W... Read more

Caroline Kelly and Paul LeBlanc President Donald Trump said Friday that he believes Saudi Arabia's explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and called the arrest of 18 Saudis "a good first step." The Saudi Arabian government announced Friday that Khashoggi died after a fistfight at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and that 18 Saudis had been arrested for further investigation while Deputy Director of Saudi Intelligence Ahmed al-Assiri had been dismissed. "I do. I do," Trump said ... Read more