House Financial Services Committee Meets Low Expectations

If you watched the first 30 minutes of the House Financial Services Committee’s recent organizational meeting, you’d conclude that things would go along swimmingly this year.

New ranking Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said all sorts of nice things about new Chairwoman Maxine Waters of California.

“Chairman Waters and I have found bipartisan success in legislating together,” he said.

It was only after that brief interlude that it became clear members of this committee are going to in fact try to eat each other alive.

The discussion deteriorated when the panel started considering the committee rules, including what kind of notice Republicans must be given when Waters decides to issue a subpoena.

During the last Congress, Democrats complained about then-Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s (R-Texas) power to unilaterally issue subpoenas.

Of course, now that Democrats are in control of the panel, they have retained the rule.

At one point, a Republican referred to the Democratic package as “stinking rules.”

Waters didn’t particularly care for that description.

“Please do not refer to the rules that we have worked so hard on as stinking rules,” she said in a sharp rebuke.

And on it went.

The Financial Services Committee is likely to be one of the most divided panels in the House.

Notwithstanding McHenry’s comments, many Republicans simply don’t like Waters.

She’s blunt and doesn’t mind antagonizing people. She and President Trump have engaged in one of the more visible feuds of this administration.

Waters has been blunt about her feelings about the president. She recently tweeted, “When are the people of this country going to wake up to the fact that this president is a disgusting liar, documented to have lied over 8,000 times in 2 yrs? Add to that his recent, blatant lies on our nation’s intel chiefs’ testimony in the US Senate. Past time for impeachment.”

Not much wiggle room there.

The committee includes some of the most conservative Republicans and some of the most progressive Democrats.

It’s not even clear whether the Democrats can get along with each other, as progressives have not been shy about criticizing fellow party members.

Then, there’s the committee agenda.

Waters has made it clear that she intends to provide rigorous, perhaps even painful, oversight of the CFPB. And that includes the tenure of former Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, who almost rolled back the agency into oblivion.

Republicans, on the other hand, loved Mulvaney.

And when McHenry recently listed his own priorities for the committee, oversight of the CFPB was nowhere on the list.

Then there’s Waters’ intention to participate in a probe into the financial aspects of the Trump Administration’s ties to Russia.

Waters was one of three House chairmen who sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requesting documents concerning the department’s decision to lift sanctions on companies controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

“As you know, Oleg Deripaska is a close associate of Russian President Putin with ties to President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who has been convicted of numerous serious financial crimes uncovered through Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” the chairmen said in their letter.

With the committee so divided and engaged in such high-profile investigations that no doubt will take a huge amount of staff time, it may be difficult for the panel to consider much substantive legislation during this Congress.

And so perhaps folks who hoped for additional changes on the regulatory front during the next two years should lower their expectations.

Biden and Upton

Former Vice President Joe Biden, never one to hold his tongue, is in hot water for traveling to Michigan at the height of last year’s midterm election and praising Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

Biden was in the state to speak to the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan and paid some $200,000 for the address, according to the New York Times.

Upton was in the audience for the speech. Biden praised Upton as a champion in the fight against cancer, a campaign important to Biden since it claimed the life of his son, Beau.

Biden referred to Upton “as one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with,” a reference that showed up in campaign commercials for Upton, who was engaged in a close reelection effort.

Some Democrats denounced Biden for praising Upton and failing to endorse his Democratic opponent, Matt Longjohn (yes, that really is his name). And there’s been some handwringing about the impact that slight might have as Biden explores whether to run for president.

Michigan is regarded as a battleground state.

To understand why Biden may have praised Upton, you’ve got to know Upton.

When you first approach the veteran congressman and call him “Mr. Upton,” the proper reference to House members, you are greeted with, “Call me Fred. Mr. Upton was my father.”

He’s known as a moderate Republican, although he became more conservative as he took over the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was one of the main members of the old Tuesday Group (so-named because it met for lunch on Tuesdays) of moderate House Republicans.

Upton is a low-key, unassuming, genuinely warm kind of guy, despite being worth millions of dollars. His grandfather was a co-founder of the Whirlpool Corp.

Upton was first elected to the House in 1986 and even non-politicos may know that supermodel Kate Upton is his niece.

Upton is a genuine nice guy (he’s readily accessible to reporters, which is a plus), even though his campaign against Longjohn got a bit ugly.

And so, perhaps Biden should be excused for saying such nice things about Upton.

But in this day and age – where politics has become hand-to-hand combat – that may not happen.

David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at dbaumann@cutimes.com.