Congress forgot investigations should be connected to legislation

Published April 15, 2019 4:16pm ET



It’s not only in sports that “you can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” The huge number of Trump investigations, proposed and actual, would require a spreadsheet. The Justice Department and the New York Attorney General have many entries on that scorecard, but so does Congress. Congress still has several investigations going about Russia, White House security clearances, Trump’s tax returns and, oh wait, there is also Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., investigating Trump investigations.

Although Congress has broad powers of investigation, there is at least one limitation that seems to be ignored: Congress’s power to investigate derives from its power to legislate. Therefore, there should be some connection between what Congress investigates and some kind of legislation, a requirement that in the present environment is little discussed and barely applied.

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