Today on Highway to Hill: Congress, or at least part of it, is finally flexing their muscles, but are they actually lifting anything worthwhile? Oversight is one of COngress’s most important and underappreciated responsibilities, but how much power do they need in order to do it? We’ll put the recent hearings and contempt votes for Anthony Fauci into perspective, and try to find a happy medium between a totally supine and totally weaponized oversight process.
This week’s syllabus 📚
* “Former Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Trying to Conceal Covid-Related Records” (Benjamin Mueller, New York Times)
* “Rand Paul releases Anthony Fauci’s pandemic-era diary notes. Here’s what they tell us” (NPR News)
* (Why was Fauci held in contempt for pleading the 5th, and what happens next?”(PBS News)
* “Fauci scandal grows as top House committee accuses Biden Cabinet official of hiding COVID diary” (Elizabeth Elkind, Fox News)
* “House votes to hold AG Barr and Commerce chief Ross in criminal contempt over census” (NBC News)
* “DOJ declines to charge Meadows and Scavino with contempt of Congress” (CNN)
* “Why was the Peter Strzok hearing such a circus? Because Congress wanted it that way.” (Casey Burgat and Charles Hunt, The Washington Post)
* “Ahead of Pending Contempt Vote, Peters Warns Colleagues Resolution Lacks Legal Basis and Would Weaken Congressional Oversight and Constitutional Rights” (Sen. Gary Peters press release)
