Brady Demands to Know the Cost of Frivolous GOP Lawsuit
Urges Rules Committee to Refer Back to Committee on House Administration
July 29, 2014 (Washington, D.C.) Committee on House Administration Ranking Member, Robert A. Brady (D-PA) sent the following letter to House Rules Committee Chairman, Pete Sessions. Today, the Rules Committee plans to send H. Res. 676, the bill authorizing the politically motivated lawsuit against President Obama and his implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
July 29, 2014
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Yesterday the Committee on Rules filed a report to accompany the resolution (H.Res. 676) authorizing the Speaker, on behalf of the House, to initiate or intervene in certain litigation against the President of the United States or other federal officials. The Committee on House Administration (CHA) received an additional referral of the resolution due to its implications for the operations of the House, especially the potentially enormous depletion of appropriations intended for other purposes.
As you know, a number of provisions in this resolution – particularly those concerning the hiring of outside counsel and consultants, and the spending of money on their hiring – are in the jurisdiction of the Committee on House Administration, where I serve as Ranking Minority Member. Our Committee has held no hearings, meetings or markups of this resolution.
Yesterday, with the concurrence of our chairman, Representative Miller of Michigan, the Speaker discharged the House Administration Committee from further consideration of the resolution. This occurred despite the fact that all three House Administration Democrats last week formally invoked the extraordinary Rule XI procedure calling for a special committee meeting to consider the legislation. So we now confront a situation in which CHA, the “money committee” on this subject due to our jurisdiction over House accounts and officers, will not be heard.
I also note that the Speaker has not provided this Committee with a good-faith estimate of how much this lawsuit or lawsuits could cost taxpayers.
In my view, this mad rush to confront the President in court represents yet another ill-conceived, ill-considered action pursued merely for political purposes. It will cost the American people millions and inevitably deplete the legislative resources otherwise available to support the work of all Members of this House. In light of the haste we have already witnessed in this process, I urge you to allow consideration of amendments on the floor, and also to permit a motion to recommit with or without instructions so that we may either have the opportunity to return
H. Res. 676 to the House Administration Committee for substantive review or offer instructions proposing changes relevant to our Committee’s concerns.
Respectfully,
Robert A. Brady
Ranking Member, Committee on House Administration
As the authorizing Committee for any contracts with outside counsel, a hearing at the Committee on House Administration would shed light on how much taxpayer money Republicans are willing to waste on this frivolous case.
On July 14, Ranking Member Robert A. Brady sent a letter to Speaker Boehner requesting that House Republicans follow regular order in this case. Citing the improper procedures used by Republicans to pay continually higher amounts in DOMA cases, Committee Democrats do not want to permit Republicans “to use taxpayer dollars as a slush fund to award a no-bid contract to high priced, politically connected Republican Lawyers without any transparency or accountability.”
Chairman Miller responded to this request the next day, ensuring that “the Committee, and Republicans, will be open and transparent about the use of taxpayer money.”
In order to ensure that transparency, Committee Democrats unanimously invoked the extraordinary Rule XI procedure calling for a special committee meeting to consider the legislation.