Congress
House hearing on member stock trading eyed for next week
The House Administration Committee could hold a hearing next week on congressional stock trading, reopening a deeply contentious issue on Capitol Hill and potentially paving the way for action on a bipartisan bill to ban lawmakers from trading stocks.
Three people granted anonymity to describe the tentative plans ahead of a formal announcement said the panel is targeting the latter half of next week for the hearing, which would focus on general developments around lawmakers’ stock trading since Congress passed legislation in 2012 outlawing member trading on insider information.
The timing is dependent on how quickly the House can approve the Senate-passed funding package ending the government shutdown. Initial votes are expected Wednesday evening.
A congressional stock trading ban has been divisive among the House rank-and-file, and it’s one of the major issues Speaker Mike Johnson has to confront when the House returns this week. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who has threatened to advance a discharge petition to circumvent Johnson, said she secured a commitment for action from him in recent days.
Luna, Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) and a group of lawmakers unveiled a bipartisan, compromise bill on the topic in September, but the government shutdown has stymied any progress.
Roy confirmed in a recent interview that he and fellow Republicans are ready to push GOP leaders to put their bipartisan stock trading ban bill on the floor whenever the House returns — or else deploy a discharge petition.
Roy, a member of the House Rules Committee, said Republicans need to figure out the timing going into November and December for when the legislation could go to the floor. He said GOP leaders, who have been skeptical of the effort, are “having conversations” about the legislation.
Some lawmakers aren’t convinced the bipartisan bill is the best vehicle for a stock-trading ban and are discussing other options, according to three other people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
There’s skepticism inside Johnson’s leadership circle about how to pass such a bill given firm opposition from many House Republicans. But Johnson has pledged in private conversations to work on the matter, according to two other Republicans granted anonymity to describe the private conversations, and Roy said that the speaker is feeling pressure to act.
The people familiar with the hearing plans said there are no firm plans at this time to mark up legislation banning lawmakers from trading stocks.
Congress
House Republicans eye next week for housing bill vote
House leadership is eyeing the week of Feb. 9 for a vote on a bipartisan housing package, according to four people with direct knowledge of the planning.
Senior lawmakers have also been mulling whether to consider the widely supported bill under suspension of House rules, which would expedite passage of the legislation, said three of the people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
However, plans for the bill are not locked in and could be subject to change as the House deals with a partial government shutdown.
The Housing in the 21st Century Act, which overwhelmingly advanced through the House Financial Services Committee in December, is part of a push by Congress to pass legislation that could address a growing housing affordability crisis. The bill includes 25 provisions that aim to increase the housing supply, modernize local development and rural housing programs, expand manufactured and affordable housing, protect borrowers and those utilizing federal housing programs, and enhance oversight of housing providers.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said Friday that he’s pushing for the Housing for the 21st Century Act to receive a floor vote expeditiously.
”I hope that that bill can come to the House floor in just a few days. I really am pushing for that, I think it’s the right decision,” Hill said on Bloomberg Radio.
The Senate’s housing bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, passed the upper chamber as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act but may be put to a separate floor vote. If the House is able to pass its own version by a wide margin before the Senate, it could have additional leverage for negotiations with the upper chamber for a final bill. Hill and other House Republicans have said the Senate bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate Banking Committee, has a number of provisions that would not be acceptable among House GOP members.
Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton now agree to testify before Congress
Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an Oversight aide said Monday evening.
It’s a remarkable reversal for the former president and secretary of state, who were adamant they would defy committee-issued subpoenas and risk imprisonment by the Trump Justice Department as the House prepared to vote Wednesday to hold them both in contempt of Congress.
After both skipped their scheduled depositions earlier this year, the Oversight Committee voted on a bipartisan basis in January to approve contempt measures for each of them.
Although both have said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, they have maintained that the subpoenas were not tied to a legitimate legislative purpose, rendering them invalid. They also complained the GOP-led exercise was designed to embarrass and put them in jail.
It is not immediately clear when they will appear and if the House will continue to pursue the contempt votes.
Congress
Top House Democrats split on funding vote
Senior House Democrats are going in different directions on a massive funding bill headed to the House floor as soon as Tuesday, underscoring the sharp divisions inside the Democratic ranks on the $1.2 trillion spending package.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday she would vote for the funding package when it goes to the floor Tuesday — breaking with a large swath of colleagues who oppose the measure over its extension of Homeland Security funding, including immigration enforcement operations.
“I will support this package,” DeLauro said during Monday meeting of the Rules Committee. She noted it secures funding for the five-full year, bipartisan bills and extends funding at current levels for DHS for 10 days.
DeLauro said without the DHS stopgap Democrats “won’t be able to bring the kinds of pressure” necessary to make changes to the full-year DHS bill they’re negotiating with the White House.
But Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, said he was dead-set against the bill due to the DHS funding.
“I will not vote for business as usual while masked agents break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
Neither leader, however, is expected to vote for a key procedural measure setting up a final debate and approval for the massive bill, which passed the Senate on Friday. That measure, known as a rule, is also expected to tee up contempt-of-Congress votes on Bill and Hillary Clinton over their decision not to fully cooperate in a Oversight Committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein. GOP leaders are scrambling to build support for that measure as some in their ranks agitate for amendments, including the attachment of a partisan elections bill.
“Republicans have a responsibility to move the rule, which, by the way, includes a wide variety of other issues that we strongly disagree with,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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