WASHINGTON — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) went on a subpoena-issuing bonanza during his four years as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Other Republicans appear ready to follow his lead.
House Republicans are quietly moving to give unilateral subpoena authority to at least seven committee chairmen, a shift from longstanding rules that have required a full committee vote to issue a subpoena. The change would allow GOP chairmen to issue subpoenas without input from Democrats, letting them challenge nearly all of President Barack Obama’s signature accomplishments, including the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, immigration reform and environmental protections.
Congressional committees have the ability to issue subpoenas to compel witness testimony or to obtain documents. But until recently, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was the only committee where a chairman unilaterally issued subpoenas. Now, as more chairmen have begun signing up for unilateral subpoena authority, Democrats fear that Republicans plan to bury agencies in congressional requests for information so they can’t get their work done.
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The five chairmen who received unilateral subpoena authority in the last Congress but never used it were on the Ways and Means, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Education and the Workforce Committees. They, too, may renew that authority in this Congress. If they all do, it would bring the total number of committee chairs with unilateral subpoena authority to 12.
Boehner did not immediately return a request for comment on why it is important for chairmen to have unilateral subpoena authority.
