Ohio’s Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is urging Congress to cease funding Department of Justice inquiries of public officials, political candidates, and their families until a new management strategy for these inquiries is established.
Jordan, who has criticised the DOJ for its inquiries into the former president Donald Trump, has asked House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger to instruct Congress to stop funding what he refers to as “politically sensitive” inquiries until the DOJ “establishes a policy requiring non-partisan career staff to oversee such investigations.”
Beyond political investigations, Jordan outlined a number of drastic budget reductions and policy adjustments he wants to see included in this year’s spending bills. As a result, the contentious question of whether to defund or restrict the Department of Justice and FBI will be a key issue that House Republicans must resolve in order to fund the government by September 30.
Jordan stated in his letter that “We recommend that the appropriations bills eliminate any funding for the FBI that is not absolutely necessary for the agency to carry out its mission.”
A part of that goal is to restrict funding for a new FBI headquarters in the vicinity of Washington, DC. Jordan is requesting that the Appropriations panel provide an operational plan to relocate the headquarters and take Huntsville, Alabama into consideration as a potential relocation option.
Earlier this year, Jordan discussed his plan for dealing with law enforcement offices and agencies that Republicans seem to have an issue with with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
With regard to the appropriations process, Jordan said, “We control the power of the purse, and that’s why we’re going to have to look at it and limit funds going to some of these agencies, particularly the ones who are engaging in the most egregious behaviour.”
The Republican congressman responded that he was speaking of the FBI and the Justice Department when the host inquired if he was.
Jordan said, “Yeah. “And what I’d really like, frankly, is for the government to just stay out of the election process.”
Jordan (R-Ohio) threatened Earlier this week to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for what he claims is the agency’s “wholly inadequate” compliance with two subpoenas issued earlier this year.
The FBI has until July 25 at 12 p.m. to comply with the subpoenas or the committee will “take action,” Jordan wrote in a letter to Wray. “We write to notify you that if the FBI does not improve its compliance substantially, the Committee will take action — such as the initiation of content of Congress proceedings – to obtain compliance with these subpoenas.”
In accordance with its constitutional and statutory obligations, the FBI “recognises the importance of congressional oversight and remains fully committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests,” according to a statement from an FBI spokesperson.