Oct.22

electoral-vote.com

Dem 53

Ties 2

GOP 45

Dems on House Oversight Committee Are Making Their Lists and Checking Them Twice

Finally we get to Rep. Robert J. Garcia (D-CA), the chap referred to above. Here's his picture; you will probably see a great deal of him starting Jan. 3, 2027:

What's the deal with Garcia, a former mayor of Long Beach, CA, and now a Democratic congressman from Long Beach? He is the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and is slated to become chair if the Democrats take the House. The Oversight Committee has very broad powers to investigate anyone and anything the chair wants to investigate and has subpoena power to encourage recalcitrant witnesses to show up.

Garcia is champing at the bit and can't wait to start investigating. Count on him starting on Jan. 3, 2027, if he gets the gavel, which is likely. When a reporter asked him what he would investigate, he said: "There's so much to look at." Here are the five initial areas he is thinking about starting with (but he could add more later, of course):

• The Epstein Files: Congress passed a law mandating the release of all the Epstein files, with only minor redactions to hide the names of Epstein's victims. Many Democrats assume that all the files incriminating Donald Trump and his cronies were not released. Garcia wants to find out more. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), also on the Oversight Committee, said: "We are absolutely going to be aggressive. We are going to enforce our subpoenas. We are going to issue subpoenas to people who have evaded our questions." Some people have been interviewed already under Chairman James Comer (R-KY), but many of those interviews were voluntary and not under oath. That will change. The Committee might start with people who may know a lot but were not involved in any of Epstein's crimes and so are unlikely to lie under oath. His secretary knows who visited Epstein. The pilot of his plane knows whom he picked up and where he brought them. That sort of thing. Low-level people in Epstein's orbit may be able to provide many leads for the Committee to work with. Garcia might even ask Ghislaine Maxwell a few questions under oath. He certainly knows where to find her.
  
  
• Trump Family Business Deals: According to Forbes, Donald Trump's net worth has soared from $2.4 billion in 2024 to $6.6 billion now. And this on a salary of $400,000. Garcia sees this as open corruption and is going to pursue this aggressively. Also within his sights are Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, among others. Ro Khanna, who is also on the Oversight Committee, is also the top Democrat on a special House committee dealing with China policy. He has a special interest in the coincidence that after the U.A.E. bought billions of dollars of worthless Trump crypto, the White House approved the sale of top-of-the-line AI chips to the U.A.E. Since the chips would probably overheat in the desert, maybe the U.A.E. in turn sold them to some country with a more moderate climate. For example, China. Khanna is quite interested in that. Khanna also wants to investigate various pay-to-play schemes—for example, involving companies who "donated" large sums so Trump would have a nice place to hold his balls. And just yesterday a story came out about how a billionaire Venezuelan banker who was indicted on felony charges hired Alina Habba, one of Trump's personal lawyers, on a contract worth $40-50 million for her help in getting a pardon. Garcia might want to ask Habba exactly what she does for that kind of pay.
  
  
• Health Policy under RFK Jr.: Garcia is also quite interested in some of the decisions Kennedy has made. He said quite bluntly, "RFK Jr. is working to destroy our health system in this country." Kennedy has opposed vaccines and fired all 17 members of the Dept.'s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing them with his own stooges. Garcia is likely to invite some or all of the 17 firees to spill the beans in a congressional hearing. Kennedy has also championed slashing the budget of NIH and CDC, previously among the most respected research and public health organizations in the world. Garcia may also investigate Trump's withdrawal from the World Health Organization after 78 years.
  
  
• DHS and ICE: Democrats want accountability for ICE agents who have murdered U.S. citizens. Garcia also wants to investigate the horrible conditions at ICE detention centers, including people being served inedible food and denied their medications. He also wants to investigate whether deporting people to countries they have no connection to and have never been to is legal. He has a special interest in Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, not only on account of their flying love nest but also their many pay-to-play schemes, some of which may have involved kickbacks to the lovely couple.
  
  
• Corporate Price Gouging: Garcia sent a letter to Chris Rogers, the CEO of Instacart, asking about their policy of charging different people different prices for exactly the same product. There is a good chance Rogers will get to explain the policy under oath sometime next year. Even Republicans may be on board with this part of Garcia's work. Rep. James Comer started investigating big companies that use AI to determine the highest price each customer would be willing to pay for products based on information the AI bots can find (Oh, you have a BMW, so that can of beans will be $3.99, thank you, but if you have a Yugo, it would be 89¢). Garcia also wants to investigate drug companies, oil companies and gas companies, including those involved in the Venezuela deal.

Garcia, Subramanyam, Khanna and some others are probably not going to get a lot of sleep the next couple of years. The Oversight Committee will not be the only game in town. Many of the other committees will investigate areas within their specific jurisdictions. It could be a three-ring circus. Actually the House has 20 standing committees, so it could be a 20-ring circus. For example, the House Financial Services Committee and Ways and Means Committee are gearing up to investigate Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent nine ways to Sunday, and there are others. But Oversight and Garcia will lead the way. (V)