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U.S. Lawmakers Launch Sexual Abuse Probe of Youth Sports Giant AAU

Bipartisan leadership of a powerful House committee demanded answers from the Amateur Athletic Union after a ProPublica and Washington Post investigation found that the massive youth sports organization has failed to protect kids from sexual abuse.

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Oct 8 • 2:15 PM EDT • Sports • propublica.org
House Health Panel Backs Kratom Sales Rules for Adults 21 and Older

A Pennsylvania House committee voted unanimously for a bill allowing registered retailers to sell natural kratom to adults 21 and older…

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Oct 3 • 11:44 AM EDT • Health • northeasttimes.com
Stop the wiretap shakedown on Main Street

House Committee on Small Business Chairman Roger Williams called for federal modernization of surveillance laws following the introduction of bipartisan legislative efforts to protect businesses fr…

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Sep 25 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • thehill.com
Colorado House harassment committee recommends censure, restrictions for lawmaker after 6 confirmed complaints

A Colorado House committee found harassment occurred in six complaints against an unidentified lawmaker and is recommending censure, restrictions and mandatory training, saying the conduct would trigger termination in the private sector.

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Sep 17 • 5:43 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
House panel’s GOP majority pushes to remove unions from politics

WASHINGTON—The highly ideological far-right Republican majority on the House committee that deals with workers issues and rights again engaged on Sept. 16 in one of its favorite sports: union-bashing.

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Sep 17 • 3:26 PM EDT • Politics • peoplesworld.org
On Capitol Hill, voter fraud targets vary by party

Van Drew's House committee saw clashes over voting claims, but no new details about NJ voter registration error

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Sep 16 • 9:16 AM EDT • Politics • njspotlightnews.org
Roger Goodell reiterates NFL’s ‘patient’ approach to prediction market partnerships

The NFL has been noticeably slow to hitch its wagon to the prediction market business, and that is intentional. Late last year, the NFL submitted written testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, which oversaw a hearing on prediction markets. The league noted the lack of “guardrails” on prediction markets, and called out so-called…

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Sep 13 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Congressional Report on Potential TBIs, Mental Health Risks in Naval Aviation

The following is “Unseen Impacts: An Investigation into the Navy’s Response to Potential Traumatic Brain Injury and Mental Health Risks in Naval Aviation” published on Sept. 8, 2026, by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs. From the Report Executive Summary Following reporting by The New York Times about an epidemic of potential brain injuries in naval aviators contributing to suicide, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched an investigation to assess the Navy’s knowledge of and actions taken regarding this issue. The findings reveal a disconnect between growing concern and

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Sep 9 • 10:48 AM EDT • Health • news.usni.org
Billionaire investor Leon Black sues and declines to testify in House committee’s Epstein investigation

Billionaire investor Leon Black is suing the House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein to try and block the panel from obtaining his non-disclosure agreements and testimony.

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Sep 3 • 9:22 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
House committee subpoenas Oracle’s Ellison about costly veterans health records project

Lawmakers in both parties are fed up with the tech firm’s handling of the decadelong effort to update VA medical files.

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Sep 2 • 2:22 PM EDT • Health • politico.com
ActBlue co-founder pleads Fifth Amendment in closed-door House GOP grilling

Matt DeBergalis pleaded the Fifth Amendment during his deposition before three House committees investigating ActBlue's fraud prevention standards.

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Aug 20 • 12:47 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Lofgren, Whitesides Demand Transparency on OSTP Initiative Funded with NSF Money

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Aug 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
House committee passes Foreign Funding Transparency Act to expose foreign donations to nonprofits

The Foreign Funding Transparency Act targets foreign nationals funneling money through tax-exempt organizations to political committees in the U.S.

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Jul 28 • 1:14 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Appeals court upholds White House adviser Peter Navarro's contempt of Congress convictions

A federal appeals court has upheld White House adviser Peter Navarro’s convictions for defying a subpoena for records from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol

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Jul 21 • 1:48 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
American Franchise Act Would Protect Small Businesses, Boost Economy

To: Members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce From: National Taxpayers Union Date: July 21, 2026 Subject: NTU’s views on the July 21 Markup I. Introduction On behalf of National Taxpayers Union, the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, we write to express our views on legislation slated for consideration before the House Committee on Education and Workforce on July 21, 2026. While NTU recognizes that the Committee is considering a broader package of legislative propo, Author(s): Alexander Ciccone

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Jul 21 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • ntu.org
Leon Black walked out of an Epstein House committee interview. Here’s what we know

Billionaire investor Leon Black, who for years paid Jeffrey Epstein for tax and financial advice, is facing scrutiny over his relationship with the late convicted sex offender after walking out of a closed-door interview with House investigators last month.

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Jul 17 • 6:44 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Full Committee Business Meeting - United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

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Jul 17 • 11:51 AM EDT • Business • oversight.house.gov
Former Obama White House attorney says ‘it was a mistake’ to deal with Epstein and she regrets it

Former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler said she regrets interacting with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and believes now it was a mistake, according to opening remarks she delivered to House committee investigators as part of a closed-door interview.

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Jul 15 • 12:32 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
AHA comments on health bills considered during House committee markup

The AHA provided a statement to the House Ways and Means Committee for a markup July 15 on various pieces of health legislation. The AHA offered feedback on the Health Care Price Certainty for All Americans Act, which would codify and expand hospital price transparency requirements.

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Jul 15 • 11:42 AM EDT • Health • aha.org
Supreme Court justices Kagan and Barrett to testify on Capitol Hill

Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan are scheduled to testify before Congress next week as lawmakers consider the judiciary’s funding request. Barrett and Kagan are slated to appear before the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on Tuesday, July 14, according to the House committee schedule. They will also testify […]

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Jul 7 • 2:17 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
House committee advances radiology-backed legislation to curb prior authorization

The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act seeks to streamline the “often cumbersome and time-consuming” task of approving requests for medical imaging in Medicare Advantage.

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Jun 29 • 2:23 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
WATCH LIVE: Mullin testifies before House committee on DHS oversight
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Jun 25 • 10:21 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Aderholt bill funding health, education includes millions for Alabama hospitals

A U.S. House Committee passed a bill to fund domestic spending on health and education programs, including millions for Alabama hospitals.

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Jun 15 • 8:44 AM EDT • Health • aldailynews.com
Science, Natural Resources Committee Democrats Demand Trump Administration Cease Illegal and Expensive Scheme to Dismantle NSF Ocean Observation System

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Jun 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Opinion: When the Science Committee doesn’t science

A New Hampshire House committee's resolution on weather modification was based on bad science and ignored evidence. The resolution passed anyway.

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Jun 13 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • concordmonitor.com
House committee votes to halt prior authorization pilot impacting radiology services

Lawmakers have opted against authorizing funding for the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model, citing concerns it will overburden patients and providers.

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Jun 12 • 4:15 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
Rep. Thanedar Introduces Bill to Crack Down on Misleading and Political DHS Communications

The Official Website of the House Committee on Homeland Security

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Jun 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • democrats-homeland.house.gov
Texas’ health care workforce has increased 123% in 30 years. State officials say it isn’t enough

Health care is the largest and fastest growing industry in Texas — but the workforce isn't growing fast enough to meet increasing demand. Workforce shortages are getting worse, according to testimony from state officials during a House Committee on Public Health hearing.

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Jun 8 • 9:22 AM EDT • Health • houstonpublicmedia.org
Texas’ healthcare workforce has increased 123% in 30 years. State officials say it isn’t enough

Healthcare is the largest and fastest growing industry in Texas — but the workforce isn't growing fast enough to meet increasing demand. Workforce shortages are getting worse, according to testimony from state officials during a House Committee on Public Health hearing.

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Jun 8 • 6:04 AM EDT • Health • keranews.org
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Seminole EMS Director testifies before Texas House Committee on Public Health

Seminole EMS Director Carly French testifies before the Texas House Committee on Public Health, asking the legislature to consider changes to rules surrounding a grant that helps rural EMS agencies purchase new ambulances.

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Jun 6 • 8:15 AM EDT • Health • kcbd.com
House health panel advances bills to combat elevated blood lead levels, fetal alcohol syndrome

The Michigan House Committee on Health Policy voted on Wednesday morning to advance two packages of bills to combat childhood lead exposure and fetal alcohol syndrome. Two of the three bills on lead exposure were not reported, however, and were instead referred to the House Committee on Rules. House Bill 4864, would alter Michigan’s definition […]

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Jun 4 • 7:03 AM EDT • Health • michiganadvance.com
Rep. Al Green tells Homeland Security Sec. Mullin to 'shut up' after calling him a racist at hearing

Rep. Al Green called Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin a racist during a House committee meeting on funding and repeatedly told him to shut up.

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Jun 3 • 6:29 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi hails Trump admin's 'justice and transparency' on Epstein files

In a prepared statement for her interview with a House committee, former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the Trump administration's release of the Jeffrey Epstein files .

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May 29 • 1:34 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
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Ranking Member Lofgren Slams Trump Administration for Plan to Politicize Research Funding Process, Undermine Expert Review

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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May 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Bondi to face closed-door questioning from House committee over Epstein files

Lawmakers to have fresh chance to dig for information on Trump’s administration’s handling of issue by grilling former attorney-general

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May 29 • 6:14 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
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Key things to know ahead of Pam Bondi’s interview with House committee about her handling of the Epstein files

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to give a closed-door interview Friday over her handling of the federal government’s investigation into the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

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May 28 • 6:31 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
A White House committee gathered sharp minds to save college football -- instead, they wrote a blog post

From Bird Rights to coach salary caps, the White House committee on 'Saving College Sports' basically wrote government-sponsored college football fan fiction

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May 14 • 11:18 AM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com
House Democrats Condemn Termination of National Science Board Members

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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May 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Ayotte wades into wraparound mental health services debate

After a New Hampshire House committee voted to kick the can down the road on whether to compel insurance companies to cover wraparound mental health services for children, Gov. Kelly Ayotte was “outraged.”

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May 8 • 5:18 PM EDT • Health • newhampshirebulletin.com
FEMA and the American people deserve better than Trump’s political lackeys

The Official Website of the House Committee on Homeland Security

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May 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • democrats-homeland.house.gov
Capitol Recap: Proposal to tax high earners stirs debate over policy, and politics, in Montpelier

The House Committee on Ways and Means has spent the last three weeks crafting proposals that would raise income taxes on households that earn more than $586,000 a year. Though the legislation has no chance of becoming law this year, some Democrats hope the debate will resonate with voters heading into the midterm elections.

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May 1 • 3:22 PM EDT • Politics • vermontpublic.org
Health care is getting more expensive. Texas lawmakers want to understand why

Health care costs are increasing faster than the rate of inflation. A Texas House committee is holding a two-day hearing this week to learn more about what drives lack of affordable healthcare before working on policy recommendations later this year.

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May 1 • 9:23 AM EDT • Health • houstonpublicmedia.org
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Texas House committee reconvenes hearing on health care affordability

Texas lawmakers will continue digging into healthcare transparency across the state on Friday as frustrations grow over the cost of healthcare.Lawmakers are exp

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May 1 • 6:19 AM EDT • Health • cbsaustin.com
Health care is getting more expensive. Texas lawmakers want to understand why

Health care costs are increasing faster than the rate of inflation. A Texas House committee is holding a two-day hearing this week to learn more about what drives lack of affordable healthcare before working on policy recommendations later this year.

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May 1 • 6:04 AM EDT • Health • keranews.org
FRESH and Affordable Foods Act Would Rightly Establish a Uniform, Science-Based Standard for Food Safety - Americans for Tax Reform

Yesterday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing entitled “Healthier America: Legislative Proposals on the Regulation and Oversight of

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Apr 30 • 12:12 PM EDT • Science • atr.org
ECU Health CEO Dr. Michael Waldrum testifies before U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on rural health care access, affordability

Dr. Michael Waldrum, CEO of ECU Health, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on rural health care access and affordability.

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Apr 28 • 4:18 PM EDT • Health • ecuhealth.org
Ranking Member Lofgren Reacts to Latest Trump Scheme to Undermine Science

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Apr 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Full Committee Business Meeting - United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

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Apr 24 • 11:26 AM EDT • Business • oversight.house.gov
Science Committee Democratic Staff Report Reveals Details on NASA’s Illegal Implementation of Trump’s FY2026 Budget Request Without Congressional Approval

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Apr 17 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Kennedy announces policy changes and faces criticism at House hearings

The health secretary appeared before two House committees to discuss proposed funding cuts. Several lawmakers pressed Kennedy about his response to measles outbreaks.

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Apr 16 • 7:20 PM EDT • Health • nbcnews.com
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RFK Jr. Defends Health Budget Cuts Before House Committee

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers that the department’s proposed budget focuses on prevention because it has better outcomes than treatment.

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Apr 16 • 12:13 PM EDT • Health • barrons.com
NC lawmakers recommend reforms to mental health system, but funding questions loom

House committee calls for jail telehealth evaluations, expanded data collection and other reforms.

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Apr 16 • 4:18 AM EDT • Health • northcarolinahealthnews.org
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Ranking Member Sykes' Opening Statement at Hearing on Scientific Publishing

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Apr 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Ranking Member Lofgren Opening Statement at Hearing on Scientific Publishing

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Apr 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Texas House committee slaps Democrats with nearly $422K in penalties for 2025 quorum break

The Committee on House Administration voted along party lines to fine 50-plus Democratic members more than $8,000 apiece for fleeing the state to try to block a GOP-led congressional redistricting plan.

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Apr 11 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • houstonpublicmedia.org
Supreme Court clears way for Trump DOJ to wipe out Steve Bannon's conviction

Bannon, now a host of a popular MAGA podcast, was convicted in 2022 for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack .

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Apr 6 • 9:41 AM EDT • Politics • usatoday.com
Ranking Member Lofgren Blasts Trump Budget Request

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Apr 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Grothman Opens Roundtable on Examining Mental Health in the MAHA Age - United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

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Mar 26 • 4:02 PM EDT • Health • oversight.house.gov
Lawmakers’ health care fraud clash

On Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats on a key House committee sparred over GOP efforts to investigate Medicaid fraud.

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Mar 18 • 6:16 AM EDT • Health • politico.com
Bipartisan Science of Reading Bill Passes House Committee

The legislation would prevent states from allowing what one member called ‘discredited approaches.’

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Mar 17 • 4:41 PM EDT • Science • the74million.org
House Committees on Science, Space, and Technology and Small Business Celebrate Passage of SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Bill on the House Floor

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Mar 17 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
House Committees on Science, Space, and Technology and Small Business Celebrate Passage of SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Bill on the House Floor

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Mar 17 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • democrats-science.house.gov
House committee decides not to ask voters to legalize mobile sports betting

PIERRE — A committee of state representatives rejected a measure that would have asked South Dakota voters to approve sports betting and use the resulting tax revenue to fund property tax relief. Rep....

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Mar 3 • 7:12 PM EST • Sports • yahoo.com
WATCH: Hillary Clinton's full deposition on Jeffrey Epstein ties before House Oversight panel

Videos of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answering questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released Monday by a House committee investigating the late financier.

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Mar 2 • 5:45 PM EST • Politics • pbs.org
US House committee releases videos of the Clintons’ Epstein testimonies

Bill and Hillary Clinton last week faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about the convicted sex offender

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Mar 2 • 4:38 PM EST • Politics • theguardian.com
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Alabama House committee approves bill to allow public health agency to inspect jails and prisons

Many groups say the kitchens and food service areas need to be inspected to help prevent illnesses from spreading.

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Feb 28 • 8:01 AM EST • Health • alabamareflector.com
Michigan House committee hears testimony alleging mold, drugs, lack of health care at women’s prison

Lawmakers heard alarming testimony Tuesday detailing years of alleged neglect, toxic mold, illegal drugs, and inadequate health care at Michigan’s only women’s prison, prompting calls for oversight and policy changes.

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Feb 24 • 6:57 PM EST • Health • clickondetroit.com
Science Democrats Concerned Over Reports of Problematic NIST Policy for Foreign Researchers

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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Feb 20 • 7:00 AM EST • Science • democrats-science.house.gov
Investment and Statecraft: The International Politics of Sovereign Wealth Funds - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

In 1953, Kuwait established the world’s first sovereign wealth fund to invest the country’s oil revenues and generate returns that would reduce its reliance on a single resource. Since then, over 100 separate funds have been created to preserve national wealth and ensure long-term fiscal sustainability. Today, they manage over $10 trillion in global assets. In this discussion with GJIA, political economist Kathryn Lavelle explains the increasingly novel dynamics that surround fund behavior and what the world can come to expect from their growing presence in international financial markets. GJIA: When it comes to the roles sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) play in global markets and politics, what would you say makes them unique? Kathryn Lavelle: Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) operate on behalf of governments as investors. That in itself is a strange relationship. Within them, a core contest takes place between the state’s interests (or sovereign) part of the dynamic, and the money interests (or wealth) part of it, and these two aspects are frequently in contradiction, serving fundamentally different goals. SWFs are also quite fascinating because when you talk to the people who manage these funds, they have an interest in convincing you that the decisions are made almost exclusively on a financial basis—they really will go to great lengths to differentiate their government owners and those who make the management decisions. At the same time, these people ultimately answer to someone in power. Therefore, for most SWFs, it remains deeply unclear who is actually making the investment decisions and for what purposes. Of course, it is not always clear how other vehicles, such as hedge funds and private equity make the decisions they do, but I think what a lot of people find particularly disconcerting about SWFs is that they seem to act on behalf of people who have a different identity from their own. People who could be trying to manipulate politics and markets in a way that would have a long-term effect on their own populations. Regular investors come and go at will, and they only share an interest in profit as far as most of us understand. However, SWFs have that extra “sovereign” part right behind them that obscures their true interest. GJIA: These funds can be found in countries all across the globe, in both authoritarian states and democracies. Would you say SWFs differ in their goals and structures between regime-type? KL: It is not necessarily regime type that makes the goals and structures of SWFs different. It has to do with their economies. Let’s look at a country like China. There’s going to be a debate about exactly how to characterize the regime, but it is a country with many different kinds of sovereign wealth funds, and a particularly opaque state connection to each. At one time, some of the state-owned Chinese oil companies created specialized investment vehicles listed outside Chinese markets that excluded parts of the firms that were more associated with human rights violations. At the same time, the China Investment Corporation (CIC)­—China’s largest SWF—draws a lot of concern, not necessarily because of its investment activities, but because of the dynamics of global politics. So, I wouldn’t really tie differences to regime types themselves in a wholesale way, but rather to how such funds are perceived and how they are structured. Saudi Arabia’s SWF is getting all kinds of attention for its involvement in Hollywood, and this takes me right back to when I was a student in the 1980s, when people were concerned about Japanese investment entities buying assets in Hollywood. They aren’t quite the same in financial terms, but it’s the same kind of concern about foreign investment that drives people to be suspicious, and the whole idea that “foreigners are influencing Hollywood.” This holds true across industries, and it reflects where politics are in places like the United States right now. One metric we can try to look at is transparency, where all the funds will tell you, “we are transparent.” The problem you’ll keep running into with this approach is how you value things. When trying to do comparative studies of equity markets, you’ll find that every country doesn’t use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles like we do in the United States. A fund may appear opaque politically and not want people to show what they’re invested in or what their intent with that investment is, but they could also just not be able to report it because of the way it was purchased, or the kinds of shares they purchased. There are some assets out there that really are difficult to put a monetary value on. GJIA: To what extent do domestic politics shape SWF behavior in both the investing “home” country and the recipient “host” country? KL: This depends on the type of fund present and also on the extent to which voters’ political views are able to influence the fund. For example, in a democratic home state like Norway, the SWF doesn’t invest in nuclear weapons or tobacco because of social concerns, but there is a continuing debate over whether it should invest in oil, even though that’s where most of the money comes from. The degree to which Norway will continue to make those investments, and whether they contradict the government’s overall climate goals, is an open question in Norwegian politics. Because of the way the fund’s governance is structured, it may not be easy to resolve. On the other hand, some people consider pension funds, like the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) in Ohio, to be quasi-SWF. They have a very strict separation between the people who make up the management division and the fund owners. No teacher or professor would want to invest in things that may harm the future of their students. At the same time, a fund manager might see an opportunity in a diversified multinational corporation that offers a good return, despite it deriving part of its revenue from e-cigarettes. These contests are very apparent. Domestic politics can work in host countries too. A good example is Singapore’s SWF, Temasek, investing in Thailand’s telecommunications sector. If you study political economy, you already know that countries everywhere are uncomfortable with foreign ownership of their telecom sectors because a foreign entity could monitor or manipulate our communications with each other. In the case of Temasek, there was significant pushback from Thai citizens surrounding the deal, which went on to influence national political sentiment toward Singapore as a whole, underscoring the risks some SWFs may face with their investment choices. In this case, fund behavior led to the dissolution of the entire Thai government in 2006 and a subsequent coup d’état. GJIA: To address some of this unease, the Santiago Principles were established in 2009 to ostensibly promote trust and transparency. From your perspective, have these mechanisms actually changed fund behavior? KL: In international relations theory, we always like to have a clear set of norms and best practices­—the orientation we want the proverbial ship to be going in. In that regard, the Santiago Principles at least got the discussion going about which direction SWFs should take at a time when people were very skittish about the growing size of these funds. Nobody wanted them to be out there and potentially destabilizing economies, so talks about disclosure, conditions for withdrawal, and the independence of managers were helpful when initiated. The biggest stumbling block was that there wasn’t exactly a good way to measure compliance with the Principles, let alone how to hold funds to them. If you read the Principles, they’re overall quite vague. In general, a fund doesn’t want to reveal how and why they make certain investment decisions because that information is proprietary—a fund makes money off of how and why it makes decisions—so how do you reconcile that with loosely-defined ideas of openness? Some decisions might have a political purpose. The bottom line is that trying to figure out and assign a score to compliance is not easy, and it is therefore the reason why the Santiago Principles never really got off the ground to the point where they could truly direct fund behavior. GJIA: Many emerging markets are looking to build their own SWFs from mineral and oil revenues. Historically, have funds shaped development trajectories in these countries? KL: I think the big story in international emerging markets investment is that the investment is increasingly no longer unidirectional. In the past multinational corporations of primarily Western background were the main form of foreign direct investment in a country. That has changed dramatically, to the point where you have companies from so-called “developing countries” taking over companies in the United States. Therefore, the landscape of international investment has changed, and I think SWFs are certainly a possibility to be the next step in the game. Historically, you didn’t need an entire financial vehicle to reinvest commodity revenues in your country, but as emerging markets get more financially sophisticated, their capacity to operate such funds has increased. SWFs would allow treasuries to move from relying on holding foreign exchange assets like cash or government bonds to having broader financial markets and targeted growth areas, while easing pressure on welfare expenditures. GJIA: With their increasing financial weight, do you see the presence of SWFs being a factor in the political choices leaders will have to make with regard to domestic and foreign policy? KL: It will depend on just how big the funds get. One of the reasons people are already apprehensive is because of their scale, and if certain SWFs in certain countries achieve a large-enough size, the presence will absolutely be cause for concern. The other factor political leaders will have to consider are their objectives. It’s not always clear how to define a SWF, or even where its activity is concentrated, but it is certainly a worry from the perspective of national security of opaque external investment. More than that, I think one of the most interesting questions going forward is whether the United States, the home to the world’s largest financial markets, will develop its own fund, for which the Trump administration announced a plan. There have also been several proposals in Congress. Were it to come into being, it would have tremendous weight. At the same time, one of the hallmarks of U.S. capitalism is a lack of government ownership of shares, so it would not be clear how such a fund would be received in domestic politics, or which direction it would take. Given how politically fragmented the country is, a Democratic administration would likely be concerned about different sectors of the economy, such as healthcare, and want investment there, rather than a Republican administration, which might prefer defense industries. No investment vehicle could thrive under conditions of such instability. Moreover, it remains unclear where the money to fund a theoretical U.S. SWF would come from. It would be a fundamentally different entity depending on whether it is financed with debt, economic surplus, commodities, or the sale of state companies, as in the case of Singapore. If it is debt, or government borrowing of some form, then the fund would have to outperform whatever the cost of that debt is, which is not an easy thing to do. I think our political leaders have enough on their plate. Our system has worked well keeping political and investment functions generally separate. We have seen different forms of business rise and fall, and even the perception of different countries, all of which funds are tied to. Unless a major SWF either starts—like in the case of the United States—or collapses—an issue that concerns the Saudis, I don’t see any political tsunamis on the horizon. . . . Kathryn Lavelle is the Ellen and Dixon Long Professor of World Affairs at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her research explores the exchange between domestic and international and political institutions with a particular emphasis on political economy and multilateralism. Dr. Lavelle’s first book, The Politics of Equity Finance in Emerging Markets, explored the political circumstances that surround large issues of stock in the developing world. After being granted tenure at Case Western, she was awarded an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship and named the William A. Steiger fellow, a designation given to the most promising political scientist in her class of fellows. While in Washington during 2006-2007, she worked on the staff of the House Committee on Financial Services on issues related to domestic and international monetary policy. Dr. Lavelle holds a PhD in political science from Northwestern University; an M.A. in government and foreign affairs from the University of Virginia; and a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Georgetown University. She is a permanent member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Interview conducted by Sid Mehrotra. Image Credit: Jason Leung, Unsplash Content Licenses, via Unsplash

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Jan 28 • 6:00 AM EST • Politics • gjia.georgetown.edu
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