Congress Under Siege
The White House probes for Congressional weakness
In the last two weeks, the White House attempted to assert control over at least three key Legislative Branch agencies in an escalation of Executive incursions into key congressional powers. The Library of Congress, Government Accountability Office, and Office of Congressional Workplace Rights all found themselves the subject of attempted take-overs.
GAO pushed back in a letter reminding DOGE that "GAO's status as a legislative branch agency has long been established and articulated by statute and the United States Supreme Court." House Oversight Ranking Member Connolly and House Admin Ranking Member Morelle released their own letter to DOGE, describing the take-over attempt as "a direct assault on the independence of a coequal branch of government." And, in case you missed it, former Comptroller General David Walker agreed in a LinkedIn post, writing "@DOGE has zero authority to enter @USGAO or do any review with regard to GAO. They should, however, use GAO’s work to help fight fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement in the Executive Branch."
The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights also rejected an effort by DOGE to assert domination over that agency. If you aren't familiar, the OCWR is responsible for advancing workplace rights, safety and health, and accessibility inside the legislative branch. Per a report, OCWR denied DOGE's request to assign a team there.
The Library of Congress remains a flashpoint. Following President Trump’s firing of Librarian of Congress Hayden and attempt to installing DOJ loyalists as Librarian, Deputy Librarian, and Register of Copyrights, the administration appears to have been rebuffed for now. POLITICO reports quiet Republican resistance that includes Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Thune. Making the pushback possible may be factions inside the Trump coalition, according to the Verge, which outlines tensions over copyright office spoils between copyright maximalists and AI aficionados. ICYMI, in prior articles we walked through the constitutional confrontation at the LC and explained what the Library does and how it came into existence.
Two developments this week suggest additional trouble.
First, Trump’s DOJ is moving to make it easier to indict members of Congress by sidestepping approval from the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, thus increasing the likelihood of political prosecutions. Those alarm bells should be ringing: last night, an interim-appointed U.S. Attorney in New Jersey claimed Rep. McIver committed assault when she insisted on her congressional right to inspect an immigration detention facility.
Second, the family of Trump insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, shot by a Capitol Police Officer as she "attempted to breach a barricaded door" to the Speaker's Lobby, a few steps from the floor of the House of Representatives where members had huddled in an attempt to protect themselves, reached a settlement agreement with the Trump administration to receive a $5 million payment to end her wrongful death lawsuit. Settlement funds would go in part to organizations that have pushed the big lie denying the insurrection. Capitol Police Chief Manger denounced the settlement. Trump also has pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists, sending a clear message that he forgives political violence aimed at his political opponents.
Congressional Technology Modernization
House roll call votes are now available via API from Congress.gov. This means that it's now possible to use an automated means to download the votes directly from the Library of Congress. Previously, the only way to obtain them was through the excellent House Clerk website.
The Congressional Hackathon Report is out, highlighting the recent bipartisan convening focusing on enhancing operations within the Legislative branch.
Mark your calendar: the next Congressional Data Task Force meets June 10.
Last week I attended LegisTech: Digital Agenda in Parliaments, a two-day convening of members of parliament, parliamentary officials (such as Clerks, Secretarys-General, and the parliamentarian), and parliamentary technology experts from around the world. The event was hosted by Bússola Tech and the Organization of American States, with one day's events taking place in the U.S. Capitol. The focus was on how leading parliaments were deploying artificial intelligence to improve their operations.
A March Committee on House Administration modernization roundtable transcript details behind-the-scenes work by the CAO, GPO, Clerk, Legislative Counsel, and others to improve House operations. Kudos to the Modernization Subcommittee for releasing the transcript and holding the event.
The United Nations is holding a tech hackathon on June 16-17 as part of a celebration of open source code. RSVP here.
Regulations, Oversight, and the Law
In his new substack, Soren Dayton explains what constitutes a regulation for the purposes of Congress's ability to repeal that regulation pursuant to the Congressional Review Act. At issue is whether Congress can undo an EPA waiver that allows California to set strict vehicle emissions standards. Some Republican members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have been hammering GAO for sticking by its legal view that a waiver is not a regulation. A few Senate Republicans are trying to sidestep the views of GAO and the Senate parliamentarian in a fight over CRA votes that comes to a head this week.
Ethics and Accountability
OCE. Republicans finally named members to the Board of the Office of Congressional Compliance (formerly the Office of Congressional Ethics), thereby allowing it to start its work. It took more than five months to allow the ethics watchdog to get up and running. Shortly thereafter, it released reports on its activities in 2024 Q4 and 2025 Q1. While it was inactive in the first quarter of this year, the OCE received 4,131 communications from citizens. By the end of the 118th Congress, OCE made 9 referrals to the House Ethics Committee for further review and terminated its review of 14 other matters.
Taking stock. Govtrack reported on members of Congress trading stocks the price of which are affected by their political decisions, and noted that Speaker Johnson has now come out in favor of a stock trading ban. (We do wonder how many members short-sold stock before the tariff announcement was made.) While enacting a stock-trading ban into law would require Senate action, Speaker Johnson could force House Rules to be updated now to put a ban in place – or use his position to bring a vote on the House floor immediately.
Appropriations and Impoundments
Impoundment. Congressional appropriators are increasingly worried about the White House impounding congressionally appropriated funds. As they should be. POLITICO reports Republican appropriators – particular defense hawks – are concerned that any agreement they reach on federal spending levels would be undone by the president if they appropriate more than the president's spending request. Some are even speaking out on the record. Other appropriators are saying Trump's threats of impoundment are merely for political leverage. A more likely story is that he's laying the groundwork.
Impoundment tracking. As you know, OMB quietly removed its website disclosing apportionments, which are when OMB doles out money to agencies pursuant to Congressional direction. The website is required by law so that Congress and the public can ensure the White House is complying with congressional direction on spending. The Government Accountability Office testified that the removal of the website violates federal law and has "potential implications for review of such records for federal audits, congressional oversight, specifically with regard to Congress’s power of the purse." Nonprofit organization Protect Democracy, which built an appropriations tracking website using the non-disappeared OMB data, filed suit against OMB for defying a clear congressional mandate.
Legislative branch appropriations hearings in both chambers wrapped up last week. Yes, I attended just about every hearing. My organization, the American Governance Institute, released 66 recommendations for FY 2026, the vast majority of which concern the legislative branch.
Institutional Scholarship Worth Reading
Chris Nehls explained how Trump broke Madisonian democracy. "Ambition no longer counteracts ambition: they are reinforcing the same will to power." Why? "This failure is one the framers of the Constitution underestimated: political actors collectively not giving a fuck anymore."
Can Congressional relationships overcome partisanship? Ummm, no, according to this study. "Results largely support the theoretical expectation that networks made of voluntary and sustained relationships foster greater cross-party cooperation, relative to compulsory or episodic connections; however, the substantive effects of these connections are too modest to offset partisan polarization."
What should you do when the (former) House Unamerican Activities Committee – or a similarly pugilistic committee – comes for you? Do not defer, but defy. Recognize "it as spectacle" and make the spectacle work for you.
How did Republicans block Resolutions of Inquiry and what does this mean for congressional oversight? Kevin Kosar explains how it happened and why: "Johnson and his co-partisans have used parliamentary jujitsu to protect the Trump administration."
Former House Counsel Mike Stern concluded his excellent seven-part series on why Congress must reclaim its power to check executive criminality. He concludes that "Congress cannot rely on other branches or institutions to police, punish or deter executive branch crime or wrongdoing…. Therefore, Congress must assume this responsibility itself." The focus of this piece is to address arguments that Congress should not take on the role of policing executive branch wrongdoing and instead leave it to "neutral" parties.
US Capitol Police Oversight
The US Capitol Police Inspector General published five new reports on its website on April 2nd. This is part of a longstanding effort, at the direction of congressional appropriators, for the USCP IG to publish all reports on its website. Before a report can be published, it undergoes a review by the Capitol Police Board.
At last count, the USCP IG published 71 reports. As of June 2023, we know the IG had issued approximately 160 reports, although more reports may have been issued since then. There appears to be a significant lag between congressional direction to publish the reports and the publication of those reports. Even as of this late date, fewer than half the required report as publicly available.
The newly released reports are:
2022: A review of the United States Capitol Police Past Major Events and Protests (dated March 2024)
2020: Top Management Challenging Facing the United States Capitol Police Fiscal Year 2020 (dated October 2019)
2020: Assessment of the United States Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section (dated September 2020)
2019: Assessment of the United States Capitol Police Pre-Screener Program (dated December 2019)
2018: Performance Audit of the United States Capitol Police Office of Policy and Management Systems (dated September 2018)
This report from a 2024 Senate Rules Committee hearing on the US Capitol Police had some excellent QFRs buried in the committee report. Among the topics are the opening of field offices, congressional funding of special assistant US Attorneys, and the use of body-worn cameras.
It appears that the special assistant US Attorneys, funded by the Capitol Police, are handling a significant amount of work unrelated to protecting Congress. "Each SAUSA is currently handling between 20 and 25 cases." These include national security and felon-in-possession cases as well as threats against members of the federal judiciary and executive branch. They did prosecute a congressional threat case in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Tampa, Florida. The SAUSA prosecuted armed robberies in DC that appear to be unrelated to Congress.
The report notes the "D.C. SAUSA coordinates legal process actions required by Department investigators for the thousands of threats and direction of interest cases each year." Handling by the D.C. SAUSA does not explain why funding is needed for SAUSAs in San Francisco and Tampa. The report indicates the SAUSAs "regularly advise and assist federal prosecutors in other districts on congressional threat cases," but no data is provided.
With respect to the USCP's body-born camera pilot program, the USCP recommended going forward with full implementation of the program and increasing to 500 mandated body-worn cameras and 25 in-car cameras, up from 70 body-worn cameras and 11 in-car cameras. During the pilot period, officers were involved in 1,253 traffic stops, 162 arrests to include weapons offenses and DUI, and 565 stops of individuals. It is unclear how much of this activity was related to protecting members of Congress or the Capitol complex.
Odds & Ends
Congressional legend Mort Rosenberg has passed. I first met Mort when we served together in the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service when I was a new lawyer. He was already a legend. I stayed in touch after I left CRS and he retired, and had the pleasure of working with him on several projects, including the creation of the first edition of a public-facing version of his congressional oversight manual. He was an indefatigable advocate for Congress and the public interest. His loss is our loss.
Know someone who is making Congress work better? Nominate them for CMF's Democracy awards.
LegiStorm reports Republicans far outpace Democrats in privately sponsored travel this year. The top destination: Israel.