Panel Discussion and Lunch with
Michael L. Stern
Stanley M. Brand
Michael D. Bopp
Elise J. Bean
Moderated by
Dr. William J. Murphy
Co-Sponsored by:
Good Government Now
and
The Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group
Event Details:
Date: Friday, September 21, 2018
Time: 12 noon – 1:30pm
Location: 2226 Rayburn House Office Building
RSVP: Please RSVP to https://bit.ly/2LHOOUB
Event Description:
The executive branch has obstructed legislative information gathering with increasing frequency and effectiveness for the better part of the last two decades. Executive agencies have become ever more adept at undermining congressional inquiry by asserting a panoply of non-constitutional privileges, meritless objections, and questionable policy, legal, and procedural delaying tactics. Members of Congress and congressional committee staff have become increasingly frustrated by their inability to enforce their constitutionally legitimate information demands and are searching for solutions to restore the efficacy of congressional investigation.
Good Government Now Senior Policy Fellow Michael Stern has proposed a partial solution to the crisis in declining congressional oversight authority in the form of an amendment to the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives to improve compliance with information requests and enforcement of subpoenas to the executive branch. Stern proposes creating an option for committees to tighten current processes for administration of written requests and subpoenas by requiring all executive branch objections and assertions of privilege in writing with detailed privilege logs by strict response deadlines. The rule would establish an escalating, multi-phase adjudication process beginning with negotiation and accommodation and proceeding through subpoena, committee ruling, and sanctions phases. Executive branch non-compliance would result in prompt escalation to the next adjudicative phase on a congressionally-mandated timetable.
The rule invokes multi-track enforcement for unresolved disputes including civil enforcement in federal court, points of order against appropriations for salaries of recalcitrant executive branch officials, and initiation of preliminary impeachment inquiries if the conduct of obstructive officials so warrants. It differentiates disputes involving claims of executive privilege from those that do not and channels only the latter, which are best-suited for court decisions favorable to Congress, toward civil enforcement.
A distinguished panel of congressional oversight experts will evaluate the merits of Stern’s proposed “Rule on Information Requests and Subpoenas” in a luncheon discussion co-sponsored by Good Government Now and the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group on Friday, September 21, 2018 from 12 noon-1:30pm in Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2226, 45 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20515. Please RSVP to email address.
Panelists
Michael L. Stern – Senior Fellow, Good Government Now and former U.S. House Senior Legal Counsel (Bio)
Stanley M. Brand – Senior Counsel, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and former U.S. House General Counsel (Bio)
Michael D. Bopp – Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and former Staff Director and Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Bio)
Elise J. Bean – Washington Co-Director of the Levin Center at Wayne State University School of Law and former Staff Director and Chief Counsel to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (Bio)
Moderator
Dr. William J. Murphy – President, Good Government Now (Bio)
Event Details
Date: Friday, September 21, 2018
Time: 12 noon – 1:30pm
Location: Room 2226, Rayburn House Office Building, 45 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20515.
RSVP: Please RSVP to https://bit.ly/2LHOOUB.
Contact Anne Brady at anne@stantongroupllc.com with any questions.
