CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 11, 2012 – 10:31 p.m.
Contempt Vote Veers From GOP Jobs Agenda
By Richard E. Cohen, CQ Staff
The House Republican plan to seek contempt charges against Attorney General
It also demonstrates the conservative GOP faction’s leverage over party leaders as the fall elections approach.
Republican leaders have been reluctant to pursue contempt proceedings against Holder. Conservatives charge that the Justice Department is dragging its feet on a request by a House panel for documents about the gun-tracking operation known as “Fast and Furious.”
But Oversight and Government Reform Chairman
Issa’s move — which Speaker
“Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the attorney general in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation,” Boehner said.
Last week, Boehner complained that the Justice Department had not responded to a May 18 letter requesting additional information and said, “There are absolutely no conversations going on.”
But the Speaker said as recently as June 8 that he wants the House “to address our deficit and our debt problem” and devote its attention to jobs growth and the administration’s fiscal policies. The day before, he stressed that his recent insistence on prompt action by Congress to avert a fiscal crisis later this year was not designed to “hear myself talk.”
A top Boehner aide said a contempt citation against Holder will not conflict with broader GOP objectives. “We laid out a robust agenda focused on the economy,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. “We are perfectly capable of dealing with the contempt citation without any slowdown in our focus on jobs.”
Fast and Furious
Holder is likely to face a grilling Tuesday during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week.
Sen.
The operation lost track of some of the guns — 800 to 1,200 of roughly 2,000 have been recovered, according to Holder — and two were found near the body of a border control agent, Brian Terry, killed in Arizona in December 2010.
Contempt Vote Veers From GOP Jobs Agenda
Grassley, like Issa, has called the Justice Department’s response to Congress’ requests for more information about the operation insufficient. The Iowa senator has noted the department turned over more than 80,000 pages of documents to its own inspector general — far more than it has provided to Congress.
Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole sent a letter to Issa late Monday calling the scheduled action on the contempt resolution “premature.” Cole repeated his offer to meet with Issa to “discuss how we can reach a resolution of this matter.” He added, “I am confident that the two of us, working in good faith, can bring this matter to a close.”
Earlier, Cole said Issa’s committee needed to specify the documents it deems essential for its review. Justice Department staff members have met twice and had other communications with Issa’s staff in recent weeks in an effort to respond to the letter in which House Republican leaders requested more documents, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.
Issa left the door open to a last-minute deal. “If the attorney general decides to produce these subpoenaed documents, I am confident we can reach agreement on other materials and render the process of contempt unnecessary,” he said.
Maryland Rep.
“It is unfortunate that the committee scheduled a contempt vote against the attorney general when federal law prohibits him from turning over many of the subpoenaed documents,” Cummings said.
Citations in the Past
House and Senate committees occasionally vote on contempt citations, only to see the conflict resolved prior to a vote by either chamber. Such events rally political supporters and can drive up political donations.
Contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor criminal offense. Either chamber can adopt a contempt resolution, which would be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Since 1980, the House has approved six contempt citations — four of them against executive branch officials. None of those came between 1995 and 2006, when Republicans held House control, according to the Congressional Research Service. The full House never took votes on another 11 contempt citations that House committees had approved during the same period.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee, for example, voted to hold Clinton administration Attorney General Janet Reno in contempt in 1998 after she refused to hand over department memos regarding the issue of appointment of an independent counsel to investigate fundraising allegations. The full House did not vote on the resolution.
A similar scenario unfolded in advance of the 2008 elections, when the Democratic House voted contempt against two top White House aides to President George W. Bush in an investigation of the firings of U.S. attorneys.
But the current partisan line-drawing appears to offer little incentive for either side to back down.
Contempt Vote Veers From GOP Jobs Agenda
The current flap with Holder comes at a time when he faces bipartisan criticism of the Obama administration’s failure to move aggressively against alleged leaks of classified national-security information.