Congress
Tim Scott clashes with Chuck Grassley, Dick Durbin over Nazi-linked bank probe
The leaders of two Republican-led committees are quietly locked in a behind-the-scenes turf battle.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who helms the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter this week to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary panel, saying he was “surprised” to learn that Judiciary had convened a hearing on the history of Credit Suisse’s servicing of Nazi-linked bank accounts.
“While this subject matter is of historic importance, its connection to the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction is less clear,” Scott wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Blue Light News.
In his opening statement at the Judiciary hearing earlier this week, Grassley said the proceedings were designed to provide an “interim investigative update” on the probe he launched in the previous Congress with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) when the two men served as the ranking member and chair of the Budget Committee.
But Scott, in his letter, said that Senate rules gave the Banking Committee jurisdiction over banks, banking and financial institutions — and “the rules do not provide an exception to this exclusive jurisdiction for morally grave topics.”
“The subject matter of this hearing should therefore fall under the Banking Committee’s oversight because the Banking Committee has the expertise, jurisdiction, and institutional responsibility to investigate these kinds of banking matters,” he added.
It’s not the first time the two committees have clashed, according to the letter: Scott recalled receiving a note from the Judiciary Committee last month when the Banking Committee took up legislation on which Judiciary believed it should have been consulted.
Now, Scott contended, the Judiciary Committee is revisiting previous work by the Banking Committee that “could provide benefits to banking regulation and bring additional accountability to banks” — but it had to be done in consultation with Banking.
Scott is asking Grassley and Durbin to hand over a swath of information, including records related to U.S. banks and details on any future hearings on the subject, by Feb. 25.
A spokesperson for Grassley declined to comment on the letter.
Congress
‘Hate to lose the earmarks’: This powerful Republican got trounced despite securing billions
More than $1.5 billion in earmarks couldn’t save Sen. Susan Collins from the “blue wave” Tuesday night, proving outsized influence in Congress isn’t always an antidote for deep voter dissatisfaction with an incumbent party.
The Maine Republican centered her reelection campaign on the argument that, in an institution largely governed by seniority, her nearly 30 years in Washington and control of the powerful Appropriations Committee could deliver more for Maine than her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson. She even peppered voters with county-specific text messages in the final days before polls closed, touting the spoils of a half-decade of earmarks guaranteeing funding for specific home-state projects.
But it wasn’t enough, by a long shot. Collins lost to Jackson by almost 8 percentage points Tuesday night, matching similar Democratic blowouts throughout the country as Republicans were ousted from control of both the House and Senate.
Collins campaign manager Steve Abbott attributed the Republican incumbent’s loss to “bigger forces at play” than local politics, noting that the five-term senator “has been able to do extraordinary things for the state at a level that’s unprecedented in our modern history.”
“People are really unhappy about the direction of the country,” Abbott added in an interview at the Collins watch party as disappointed supporters left the ballroom at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor.
Collins is not the only Republican incumbent who touted earmarks in the final weeks before Election Day and lost anyway. Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and Monica De La Cruz of Texas were all defeated Tuesday despite reminding voters of the hundreds of millions of dollars they each secured for specific projects in their districts.
Three others who took that tack — Reps. David Valadao of California, Rob Wittman of Virginia and Tom Barrett of Michigan — are trailing their Democratic challengers as election officials continue to tally votes in those districts.
Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who has represented Portland and surrounding towns for almost 18 years, said in an interview that there is no doubt voters are “grateful for the amount of money a state’s able to receive” when represented by a top appropriator.
“But I think Mainers were balancing the Republican majority and the cuts to our state already,” Pingree added. “So, yes — we hate to lose the earmarks that go to fire departments and sewer projects and other things. But overall, we’re much better off without a Republican majority.”
She noted almost $1 trillion in reductions to health care spending under the GOP megabill enacted last year, President Donald Trump’s tariffs, staffing losses at federal agencies like USDA and the expiration of subsidies for people who buy health care through the federal marketplace.
Jackson, the Democrat who beat Collins, said on Election Day he should be assigned to the Appropriations Committee to ensure Maine still has a seat at the table.
“I know people will chuckle and stuff like that. I know it’s based on seniority,” Jackson told reporters at a canvassing event in Portland Tuesday, hours before the polls called. “But I think if I beat the Appropriations chair, then I should be on Appropriations. That’s going to be my argument anyways.”
However, a person close to the Collins campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly, warned that Maine voters “are going to wake up and be kind of shocked” at the influence and funding they have lost by ousting the longtime senator — and that “someone brand new” won’t be able to bring home the same level of federal funding.
“You can go to any town here in Maine,” the person said, “and Sen. Collins has delivered.”
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan announced Wednesday he will seek to lead House Republicans as they enter the minority for the first time in four years.
“As we look to the future, we must learn from these results,” he said in a letter to colleagues a day after voters delivered an enormous rebuke to GOP candidates. “When Americans get knocked down, they pick themselves up and get back to work. Now our Conference must do the same.”
With Republicans at risk of losing 40 seats or more, Jordan is seeking to lead a much diminished corps of lawmakers. He pitched himself in the letter as a “battle-tested” combatant who is well-equipped to tangle with an emboldened new Democratic majority.
“In these next two years, our job cannot be merely to spotlight how radical this new Democrat party is — offense, not defense, wins elections,” he wrote, promising to “prioritize making Americans’ neighborhoods safer, keeping more money in their pockets, and protecting enduring American values and freedoms.”
“To restore our majority, we must restore voters’ faith in our ability to deliver on these principles,” he added.
Many Republicans expected Jordan to run for the position if Republicans lost the House after spending months laying the groundwork for a third leadership bid. Most recently chair of the Judiciary Committee, the 62-year-old House veteran has long been a popular figure among the GOP’s conservative base and helped a variety of candidates across the party’s ideological divides in the final weeks leading up to the election.
Jordan is expected to be joined in the minority leader race by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who could make his own announcement later Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff he plans to step aside.
Jordan took aim at the current House GOP hierarchy in his letter to colleagues: “For too long, we have operated without a clear plan to survive the hour or the day in front of us. That will not cut it against an emboldened and energetic Democrat majority.”
“We need a Leadership team that is active and engaged, forward-thinking and straight-shooting,” he added.
A co-founder of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, Jordan has made inroads with more moderate colleagues in recent years. His previous bids at a top leadership position — for minority leader against Kevin McCarthy in 2018 and then later to replace McCarthy as speaker in 2023 — were unsuccessful.
When he ran for the speakership, a group of moderate House Republicans blocked Jordan in a public vote on the House floor. This time, Jordan will only need a majority of the Republican Conference to win as minority leader.
The race for House minority whip is shaping up to be a contest between the current House majority whip, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, and Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger of Texas.
Emmer, who already said he had planned to run for the job regardless of the outcome of the midterms, has officially started making calls, according to two people directly familiar with the outreach, granted anonymity to describe private conversations. Pfluger, meanwhile, formally announced his plan to run for whip Wednesday morning in a letter to colleagues.
“We started 2025 with a clear mandate, and although there were successes, I believe we left a lot on the table,” Pfluger said in the letter, obtained by Blue Light News. “Some circumstances may have been out of our control, but we also missed many opportunities.”
Pfluger was among those who had pushed previously for Republicans to crack down on alleged fraud in social safety net programs in party-line budget reconciliation bills. He said Wednesday that while House Republicans have “a lot to be proud of,” the time has come to “regroup, recharge and fully unify.”
It’s all unfolding after the GOP’s devastating loss on Tuesday night, which could have some members looking for a fresh leadership team. Already Speaker Mike Johnson has said he has no intention of running to be minority leader, clearing the path for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio or the current House majority leader, Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
House GOP leadership elections will begin next week, with candidates having until this Friday at noon to make their bids official.
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