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House Republicans ramp up efforts to enforce Garland subpoena after contempt vote
Washington — House Republicans are ramping up their efforts to enforce a subpoena against Attorney General Merrick Garland, with multiple avenues in play after the Justice Department said it would not bring charges against Garland following a House vote to hold him in contempt of Congress.
“We’re going to be as aggressive as we can and use every tool in our arsenal,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of the effort to enforce the subpoena at a news conference on Wednesday.
GOP lawmakers are seeking audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur concerning the president’s handling of classified documents, which came as part of an investigation that wrapped earlier this year. The House Judiciary and Oversight committees demanded that the Justice Department provide the tapes as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president. But the president asserted executive privilege over the recordings in May.
That didn’t stop House Republicans from voting to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for the refusal to hand over the recordings in a vote earlier this month. The move marked a major escalation, but it was not without precedent. In 2012, former Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt, as was former attorney general Bill Barr in 2019. And neither faced criminal charges from their own Justice Departments.
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But Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, made clear on Wednesday that Republicans remain steadfast in their intention to secure the audio recordings, arguing that they need to be able to check the audio to confirm what’s on the written transcript of Hur’s interview with Mr. Biden.
“Everybody is in agreement on the objective, and that is to have access to that audiotape,” Johnson said. “We need it.”
Johnson outlined that the House Judiciary Committee would file a lawsuit next week against the Justice Department to enforce the subpoena. But he noted that “in the meantime, there’s a lot of different ideas and discussions and people are brainstorming on how might we acquire access to those tapes,” saying House Republicans are “looking at all avenues.”
One of those avenues may be a push to hold Garland in “inherent contempt,” a tool rarely used in modern times that’s being pushed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and could result in Garland being taken into custody.
The Florida Republican has been teasing an inherent contempt resolution in recent days. And at a news conference on Wednesday, she said she plans to force a vote by calling up a privileged motion on Friday morning, unless Garland complies with the subpoena.
“We are asking that he bring the tapes to the House and let us listen to them,” she said.
In a letter to colleagues on Monday, Luna outlined the unusual process, which she said would involve Garland being “brought before the bar of the House by the Sergeant at Arms, tried by the body, and can then be detained either in the Capitol or in D.C.” She said the maneuver demonstrates the “seriousness” of non-compliance with Congress.
“It is imperative that Congress uses its inherent contempt powers and instructs the Sergeant at Arms to bring Attorney General Merrick Garland to the House for questioning and compel him to produce the requested evidence,” Luna added.
Luna’s motion would tee up a vote on the House floor within two legislative days. But with the House out on recess next week, that vote could be pushed into the second week of July. And although the resolution to hold Garland in contempt passed the House with all but one Republican voting to back it, support for Luna’s motion remains unclear.
The speaker noted on Wednesday that he’s spoken with Luna and others about “various ideas,” saying that he doesn’t think anything has been “settled on” yet.
Frito-Lay is recalling a limited number of 13 oz. bags of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips after being alerted by a consumer contact that the product may contain undeclared milk.
The bags of chips affected by recall were distributed to certain retail stores and e-commerce distributors in Oregon and Washington and were available for sale beginning Nov. 3, 2024.
“Those with an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the recalled product,” the Food and Drug Administration said in the recall notice posted Thursday.
No allergic reactions related to the recall have been reported, according to the recall. Additionally, no other Lay’s products, flavors, sizes or variety packs are affected.
FDA
The recalled chips include Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, in flexible 13 oz. (368.5 grams) bags with UPC code 28400 31041, a “Guaranteed Fresh” date of 11 Feb 2025, and one of either two manufacturing codes: 6462307xx or 6463307xx.
General guidelines from the FDA advise consumers who have purchased any recalled food to dispose of the product or return it to the retailer for a full refund.
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What is the debt ceiling? Here’s why Trump wants Congress to abolish it before he takes office
Washington — President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk blew up a GOP-backed deal to fund federal agencies into March, raising the pressure on Republican congressional leaders to craft a plan to avert a government shutdown just before the holidays.
In a statement Wednesday, Trump and Vance lambasted the agreement for including provisions favored by Democrats. But the incoming president and vice president also added a new, significant wrinkle to negotiations when they urged Congress to raise or abolish the debt ceiling now, instead of next year.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said in their statement. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now.”
What is the debt ceiling?
Set by Congress, the debt ceiling, or limit, is the maximum amount of money the U.S. Treasury is authorized to borrow to pay debts incurred by the federal government. Lifting the debt ceiling does not authorize new spending, but instead lets the government spend money on obligations that Congress has already been approved.
Failing to address the debt ceiling could lead the U.S. to default on its debt, which would have devastating effects on the economy. The government has never defaulted, and the Treasury typically uses accounting moves, known as “extraordinary measures,” to delay breaching the debt ceiling.
While raising the debt ceiling used to be routine, legislation addressing it has in recent years been used as leverage to force policy concessions and fuel debates over government spending.
Congress last addressed the debt ceiling in June 2023 as part of a legislative package negotiated by President Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That deal suspended the debt ceiling through Jan., 1, 2025, ensuring any fight over it would take place after the 2024 elections.
The Treasury Department will likely implement extraordinary measures to stave off a default in the new year. It will also announce an “X date,” the estimated point at which the government will no longer be able to pay its obligations. The Economic Policy Innovation Center, a conservative think tank, projected in an analysis released Monday that it’s possible the debt limit will be reached by June 16.
While the Treasury Department’s use of extraordinary measures would give Congress more time to address the debt ceiling, Trump is now urging lawmakers to take action now, before he takes office.
Why does Trump want to raise the debt ceiling?
The president-elect will come into office with a legislative to-do list that includes securing the border and extending provisions of his signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was enacted in 2017 and overhauled the tax code. But a fight over the debt ceiling could complicate efforts by the Republican-led House and Senate to focus on those legislative initiatives and pass them quickly.
Trump is urging lawmakers to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, a position that some prominent Democrats have endorsed in the past.
“Number one, the debt ceiling should be thrown out entirely,” Trump said in a phone interview Thursday with CBS News’ Robert Costa. “Number two, a lot of the different things they thought they’d receive [in a recently proposed spending deal] are now going to be thrown out, 100 percent. And we’ll see what happens. We’ll see whether or not we have a closure during the Biden administration. But if it’s going to take place, it’s going to take place during Biden, not during Trump.”
Trump separately told ABC News that “there won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with,” indicating any spending deal to prevent a shutdown must address the debt limit.
“If we don’t get it, then we’re going to have a shutdown, but it’ll be a Biden shutdown, because shutdowns only [injure] the person who’s president,” he told ABC News.
Whether Republicans and Democrats would go along with such a plan, though, is far from clear. GOP lawmakers in both chambers have opposed raising the debt ceiling without spending reforms, and debates over the debt limit often give way to broader fights over the federal budget, which conservatives in Congress have said is bloated and should be reduced. Plus, Democrats still control the Senate and the White House.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday that shutting down the government would harm families and endanger services Americans rely on.
“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country,” she said. “President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government and they are threatening to do just that — while undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested Democrats would not go along with a plan pushed by Republicans to raise the debt limit.
“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” the New York Democrat wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.
Jeffries also told reporters “the debt limit issue and discussion is premature at best.”