congressional investigations

As we previewed in a prior alert, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently published a complete collection of oversight plans adopted by each authorizing committee of the House of Representatives for the current Congress.  Taken together, these plans outline an expansive and aggressive agenda for congressional investigations…

Continue Reading House Releases Sweeping Oversight Agenda for 119th Congress: Major Focus Areas for Private Sector Entities

Last week, the Georgia state Senate authorized a sweeping investigation of former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, continuing a national trend of increased state legislative investigations.  Although state-level investigations continue to lag far behind congressional investigations, state legislatures appear to be replicating what we see on the federal level with increasing…

Continue Reading Georgia Senate Launches Abrams-Focused Inquiry, Signaling Growing Risk of State Legislative Investigations

Recently, three key investigative committees of the House of Representatives—the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Judiciary Committee, and Energy and Commerce Committee—each adopted their respective committee’s oversight plan for the new Congress, offering a window into the committees’ investigative priorities for the next two years. The newly…

Continue Reading Preparing Now for Expected Congressional Oversight: Newly Released Oversight Plans Signal Investigations of Private Parties

Tax-exempt organizations, including private foundations and other types of nonprofits associated with high-net worth individuals, have been subject to increasing investigative scrutiny in recent years. Last Congress, for example, the House Judiciary Committee and several other committees issued document requests to multiple nonprofit organizations, and in this Congress the trend…

Continue Reading Tax-Exempt Organizations: Understanding Executive and Congressional Enforcement Priorities

Update: On September 19, 2024, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) voted unanimously to adopt resolutions for civil and criminal enforcement of the Committee’s subpoena to Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre.  On September 25, 2024, the full Senate voted unanimously to refer…

Continue Reading An Empty Chair and a Not-so-Empty Threat:  Senate HELP Committee to Vote on Rare Civil and Criminal Subpoena Enforcement Actions Against Steward Health Care CEO 

Late last week, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability published the House of Representative’s “Authorization and Oversight Plans.” The massive 241-page report is required by the House rules, and the Oversight Committee’s report collects the individual oversight plans that each standing committee of the House is required to create at…

Continue Reading Newly Published “Oversight Plan” Outlines the House’s Investigative Priorities

At the start of a new Congress, the House and Senate, and their committees, adopt internal rules that govern their operations, including rules that affect congressional investigations. These rules are often revised from Congress to Congress. To assist our clients responding to congressional investigations, this alert summarizes the rules for…

Continue Reading Congressional Investigations and the Rules of the 118th Congress

The House of Representatives formally established the new “Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party,” with a bipartisan vote of 365-65. The Select Committee, to be chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a former military intelligence officer who also serves on the…

Continue Reading Preparing for Investigations by the New House Select Committee on China

Congressional investigations thrive in divided government.  With a constrained ability to advance policy through legislation, Members are more likely to turn to investigations as a means of making headlines and affecting private sector practices. 

The Democratic Senate majority and the Republican House majority give the respective majorities the ability to…

Continue Reading Congressional Investigations in the 118th Congress

Yesterday, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol filed a highly consequential brief in ongoing litigation relating to a subpoena seeking documents involving attorney John Eastman’s alleged participation in efforts to thwart Congress’s certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential election. …
Continue Reading January 6 Committee Filing Provides Further Support for Parties Asserting Attorney-Client Privilege in Congressional Investigations