Last week, the Georgia state Senate authorized a sweeping investigation of former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, continuing a national trend of increased state legislative investigations. Although state-level investigations continue to lag far behind congressional investigations, state legislatures appear to be replicating what we see on the federal level with increasing
Continue Reading Georgia Senate Launches Abrams-Focused Inquiry, Signaling Growing Risk of State Legislative Investigationscongressional investigations
An Empty Chair and a Not-so-Empty Threat: Senate HELP Committee to Vote on Rare Civil and Criminal Subpoena Enforcement Actions Against Steward Health Care CEO
By Darcy Slayton on
Posted in Congressional Investigations
This week, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) will vote to pursue civil enforcement and criminal contempt of Congress charges against Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre. If the vote succeeds, and it is likely it will, Dr. de la Torre will be only the second corporate executive subject to a subpoena enforcement action in the history of the Senate.
The bipartisan enforcement action, announced by Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ranking Member Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), followed a hearing last week for which Dr. de la Torre was subpoenaed to testify but failed to appear.
The use of an empty chair at a hearing to symbolize noncompliance with congressional requests has increased in recent years, but it is nonetheless a rare event on Capitol Hill. Dr. de la Torre, remarkably, has been represented by an empty chair twice in less than six months. In March 2024, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, launched an inquiry into financial mismanagement at Steward Health Care. Senator Markey twice requested that Dr. de la Torre testify at a Subcommittee hearing on April 3, 2024. Dr. de la Torre declined to appear, earning his first empty chair of the year.Continue Reading An Empty Chair and a Not-so-Empty Threat: Senate HELP Committee to Vote on Rare Civil and Criminal Subpoena Enforcement Actions Against Steward Health Care CEO
Preparing for Investigations by the New House Select Committee on China
The House of Representatives formally established the new “Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party,” with a bipartisan vote of 365-65. The Select Committee, to be chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a former military intelligence officer who also serves on the…
Continue Reading Preparing for Investigations by the New House Select Committee on China