Bipartisan Coalition Urges Congress to Restore Lost Subpoena Enforcement Powers with Inherent Contempt Procedure
October 21, 2020
Rep. Nancy Pelosi,
Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
The Capitol, Room H-232
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Kevin McCarthy,
Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
The Capitol, Room H-204
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. James McGovern, Chairman
Committee on Rules
U.S. House of Representatives
The Capitol, Room H-312
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Tom Cole, Ranking Member
Committee on Rules
U.S. House of Representatives
The Capitol, Room H-152
Washington, DC 20515
Re: Inherent Contempt Procedure to Restore House Subpoena Enforcement Power
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Chairman McGovern, and Ranking Member Cole:
On behalf of the undersigned bipartisan group of civil society organizations and individuals, we encourage you to include in the rules package for the 117th Congress the provisions of H.Res. 1029, the Congressional Inherent Contempt Resolution, which proposes to establish a modified version of the traditional inherent contempt enforcement procedure to address the intensifying crisis of noncompliance with congressional subpoenas.
H.Res. 1029, sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, would create a process whereby the House could unilaterally conduct trials of, convict, and directly penalize executive branch officials and others who defy congressional subpoenas with personal fines. This proposal can be implemented by amendment of House rules or passage of a resolution.
The root cause of the current challenges of enforcing legislative subpoenas is the abdication by Congress over the past fifteen years of a credible threat of personal punishment for government officials who defy congressional subpoenas. The emergence of this situation is no accident. The executive branch has waged a concerted, decades-long campaign to subvert the use of Congress’ two most powerful enforcement methods, the inherent and criminal contempt procedures, and instead force Congress to use the civil enforcement process which does not entail any credible threat of personal punishment for uncooperative witnesses. This inevitably forfeits to courts the absolute right of House committees to make initial rulings on claims of privilege, exposes Congress to aberrant judicial decisions subversive of its authority, and deteriorates into prolonged litigation that is incompatible with expedient legislative oversight.
Unfortunately, Congress also shares substantial responsibility for the diminishment of its authority, and has yet to challenge these executive branch usurpations appropriately. We therefore urge you to repair this damage now by acting decisively to restore the credible threat of significant Coalition Letter in Support of H.Res. 1029 Page 2 punishment necessary to compel recalcitrant executive branch officials to comply with congressional subpoenas.
The…
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