Congress
Ossoff presses GOP opponent Mike Collins on House Ethics probe
Sen. Jon Ossoff is honing a new line of attack against his opponent for reelection, GOP Rep. Mike Collins, by zeroing in on an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that Collins’ congressional office misused taxpayer dollars.
“Congressman Collins must cooperate with this investigation, he must commit to testifying and he must explain to the public and the press why he has refused to cooperate, why he has obstructed, and why he has stonewalled this investigation to date,” Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, said during a Tuesday morning press conference.
His comments come at a pivotal moment on two fronts. On the campaign trail, the midterms are fast approaching and Ossoff is fighting to hang onto his seat — and Democrats, in turn, are counting on the incumbent to help the party reclaim the Senate majority in one of this election cycle’s most closely-watched races.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, there’s been a renewed focus in recent months on the need to hold members accountable for misconduct, and a bipartisan effort to overhaul the congressional ethics process is currently underway.
The Office of Congressional Conduct — a nonpartisan, quasi-independent entity tasked with vetting and reviewing ethics complaints to then pass onto the House Ethics Committee — in January released a report saying it found “substantial reason to believe” that Collins’ office used official funds for unauthorized purposes. Those purposes, according to the report, included appearing to hire and pay “a district intern who had a preexisting personal romantic relationship with the office of chief of staff who did not perform duties commensurate with her compensation.”
Collins’ chief of staff at the center of the accusations, Brandon Phillips, is no longer on payroll.
The Office of Congressional Conduct further noted in its report that Collins “refused to cooperate” with its review and recommended the House Ethics Committee issue the lawmaker with a subpoena. Ossoff on Tuesday argued that Collins needs to “cooperate fully with this matter” and that “this is not going away.”
A Collins’ campaign spokesperson, Meyer Siegfriend, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that “Rep. Collins has fully cooperated with the House Ethics Committee on this bogus, politically motivated complaint and looks forward to the committee fully clearing him in short order” — something Ossoff “would know if [he] weren’t too busy abandoning Georgia to suck up to liberal activist donors in the Hamptons.”
The Office of Congressional Conduct did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the Ethics Committee, which is now conducting its own inquiry, does not comment on pending cases.
Sen. Ron Johnson is sending a letter Monday requesting a conference meeting to discuss the midterm results and a delay in the leadership election.
Johnson has gathered enough signatures to force the meeting under the Senate GOP’s rules and is proposing the gathering for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat,” Johnson and his backers write in the letter to Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice”
Republicans still expect their leadership election to be held Tuesday, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed to lead the party next year in the minority.
Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.
“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”
He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.
Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”
“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.
Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.
The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.
“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”
The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.
Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”
“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.
Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.
“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.
Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”
“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.
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