Congressional Committee Subpoenas Trump Admin Over Family Separations

Congressman Elijah Cummings. Photo By Edward Kimmel

The Committee on Oversight and Reform issued their first subpoenas for the 116th Congress, Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) announced via Oversight House.gov.

The subpoenas will be issued to “Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II for records on the Trump Administration’s child separation policy.”

According to the statement, the subpoenas will require “the agencies to produce specific categories of information about each separated child,” the statement goes on to say, this information is the same information the Committee had requested seven months ago on a “bipartisan basis by then-Ranking Member Cummings and Rep. Mark Meadows, then the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations.”

While according to the statement, the Chairman by committee rules can “authorize subpoenas on his own,” Cummings decided to “consult with Ranking Member Jim Jordan in advance.”

Republican Rep. Jordan of Ohio objected to the subpoena’s and requested the Committee vote, Cummings agreed, the vote was 25 to 11, with two Republican’s, Rep. Chip Roy (TX) and Rep. Justin Amash (MI), voting in favor of the subpoena’s.

Cummings wrote in his statement, he did not “make this decision lightly.”

Jordan said via CNN, “You didn’t want to lay the groundwork. You just wanted to be first. The subpoenas you are pushing for today, I think are premature.”

As a Reminder: As the News Blender reported Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is scheduled to testify before the Committee on Homeland Security, Chaired by Bennie Thompson, March 6th, 2019, to answer question regarding among other things, the family separation policy.

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About Tiff 2519 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.