Under Fire
Two high-profile interrogations are in the spotlight today on Capitol Hill as House committees grill the CEOs of five health insurance companies, and the former special counsel who led probes of President Donald Trump’s actions returns for public questioning.
Jack Smith spent more than eight hours answering the questions of House Judiciary Committee members last month behind closed doors. He’ll field their followups — or if they tread the same ground, he’ll repeat live on C-SPAN his account of the probe of attempts to overturn the 2020 election and a separate examination of the mishandling and retention of classified documents.
As for the health insurance executives, Erin Durkin reports that they’re scheduled for back-to-back hearings before the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees. Among the topics they’re prepared to discuss: Obamacare. Trump has said Affordable Care Act subsidies shouldn’t be routed through the insurance companies.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley said in prepared testimony that his company intends to give profits from its ACA plans back to customers. A dynamic to watch is whether that neutralizes criticism about the largest US health insurer profiting from taxpayer-funded help. Read More
Congress generally squeezes a lot of its investigative work into just a few months during even-numbered years, when primary elections and a long fall campaign break cut into their session time. A panel to watch is the House Oversight Committee, which wants to talk to Bill and Hillary Clinton about disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said he’ll seek criminal contempt charges against them for defying subpoenas.
On Track for Shutdown Avoidance
While the Senate finishes out the last couple days of its recess week, the House is ready to vote on its final fiscal 2026 spending bills, covering $1.2 trillion in spending, including for the military and the Department of Homeland Security.
Getting votes for the DHS measure (
See Also: Republicans Ponder Another Megabill
Redistricting Wrinkle
A state court judge is ordering a quick redo of New York’s congressional district map.
Isaiah Poritz reports that the district held by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R) was found to violate the state constitution because it dilutes the ability of Black and Latino voters to elect candidates of their choice.
Judge Jeffrey H. Pearlman said the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission must change the boundaries by Feb. 6 so they can be used in this year’s elections.
It’s an opportunity for Democrats to gain an additional seat in Congress as states across the country engage in mid-decade redistricting battles. Ed Cox, the chairman of the New York Republican State Committee, called the decision “a partisan ruling made by a partisan judge” and said a Staten Island-Brooklyn congressional district has existed since the 1980s. Read More
More Campaign News:
- Billionaire Helps Pro-Collins Super-PAC Bank $10 Million
- FCC Cracks Down on Talk Shows Hosting Partisan Candidates
Face-Saving About-Face
Those threats to buy Greenland or take it over by force? They’re suddenly inoperative.
Trump announced on social media that a conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte led to “the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.”
There are no details yet, so a lot is TBD. Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said in a broadcast inverview that though “the day ends better than it started,” it’s clear Trump would still like to control Greenland and that’s “a red line for the Kingdom of Denmark.” (Greenland is an autonomous part of Denmark. Still.) Read More
Rutte said the breakthrough was secured without discussing the territory’s sovereignty. Read More
Trump officially launched his multinational Board of Peace initiative today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The plan had spurred rancor and reservations from key allies, but Trump sought to allay some worries about it by saying it would “work with many others, including the United Nations.” Read More
Still on today’s agenda: Russia’s continuing battle to control Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Switzerland to meet with Trump today, while Vladimir Putin said he is ready to commit Russian assets that remain frozen in the US to rebuild Ukrainian regions.
Also Read: Wall Street Chiefs Try to Lay Low to Avoid Trump’s Trolling
Testing Trump’s Justification
One of today’s significant DC events is happening hundreds of miles away. The full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in New Orleans, will hear arguments on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans.
It follows a decision by a three-judge panel that concluded drug trafficking didn’t equal an invasion or predatory incursion as envisioned by Congress in 1798. “Drugs are a scourge and weaken our citizens and our country, but it is not beyond reason that in 1798 an enemy country could try to sicken and physically weaken those within the United States,” the majority decision said. “That would not have been an invasion or predatory incursion then, and it is not one today.”
The judge who dissented, Andrew Oldham, said the majority had failed to give proper deference to Trump’s determinations about a foreign invasion.
The appeals court and the Supreme Court have both said that the Trump administration can continue to deport accused gang members and terrorists under the usual immigration laws, which require more due process.
Also Read: US Says Venezuela ‘Instability’ Bars Hearings Over Migrant Fight
Partial Catch-Up
Delayed data on how the economy behaved during the months leading up to the government shutdown is due out today, belatedly providing the official quarterly report card. Usually, we get the third-quarter gross domestic product figure long before January, but the lapsed appropriations got in the way.
Today’s release will update a rosy preliminary estimate that found signs of fast-paced expansion. And the Bureau of Economic Analysis will remain off-schedule, with the preliminary estimate of fourth-quarter GDP moved to Feb. 20 from the original Jan. 20.
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