GOP made it easier to subpoena presidential administrations in 2015. Now Democrats have that power.
What a Democratic majority could mean for the Trump administration.
JOSH ISRAEL NOV 7, 2018, 8:09 AM
Back in 2015, the House Republican majority changed the rules in the House to make it easier for them to subpoena the Obama administration. Rather than involve members of the Democratic minority in the process at all, they simply authorized their own committee chairs to unilaterally issue subpoenas to anyone they wished.
Come January, that may well come back to haunt the dwindling number of Republicans left in the U.S. House of Representatives. The result: for the first time, Donald Trump and his administration may soon face some real oversight.
Unlike some legislative bodies, the House essentially works on simple majority rule. With 218 votes, the majority does not need a single vote from the minority to issue subpoenas for testimony and documents — or to change its own rules. This means that after two years with largely no scrutiny at all, the Trump administration could soon be forced to be transparent with the American public about its conflicts of interest, compliance with the law, and myriad examples of corruption.
https://thinkprogress.org/so-the-house-democrats-just-won-subpoena-power-now-what-41bc228e7715/
= new reply since forum marked as read
