Tag Archives: Angelle Baugh

The House Oversight Committee Investigative Agenda for the Next Two Years Highlights Likely Private Sector Targets for Congressional Investigations

by Robert Kelner, Brian Smith, Angelle Baugh, Brendan Parets, Perrin Cooke, Bill Sokolove, and Darcy Slayton

On May 21, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s “Oversight Plan” was published, after being submitted for publication by Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) over a month ago. The Oversight Plan outlines the “topics designated for investigation, evaluation, and review” by the Committee over the next two years. The Oversight Plan provides a very useful roadmap of the Committee’s investigative priorities and should be seen as a fair warning to the industries and companies identified in the plan.

The Committee’s Oversight Plan is required by the House Rules. Under House Rule X, Clause 2, each standing committee of the House is required to submit an oversight plan to the Oversight Committee. The Oversight Committee then reviews the plans and reports to the full House on each committee’s plan and the Oversight Committee’s recommendations for coordinating oversight activities. The 2021 Oversight Plan included the Oversight Committee’s compilation that, along with its own plan, included the oversight plans of all other House committees. The nearly 300-page compilation generally indicated an interest in oversight of the coronavirus crisis, health care, economic prosperity and infrastructure investments, and climate change and the environment.

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Financial Institutions and Congressional Investigations – 2020 into 2021

by Robert Kelner, Brian Smith, Angelle Baugh, and Brendan Parets

Financial institutions are consistently targets of congressional oversight interest. In the last Congress, House and Senate committees held hearings with, demanded documents from, requested interviews with, and hosted briefings from a number of bank and non-bank financial institutions regarding a variety of issues. In this post, we look at the recent trends in congressional investigations of financial services companies and predict the future trajectory of investigations related to this industry. 

Even as we write this post, Congress is pursuing investigations and hearings related to the stock trading controversy concerning GameStop, Reddit, and Robinhood. These inquiries fit with recent trends in congressional investigations of the financial service sector, such as the focus on financial companies of all sizes and concerns about consumer harm.

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