Oversight and Policy Letters and Testimony

CREW sent a letter to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) to urge the committee to reject the executive branch’s unconstitutional extension of power to direct our election systems. The letter was co-signed by a bipartisan coalition of former state secretaries of state who oversaw elections across the country.

The upcoming TGDC virtual meeting on July 2, 2025 will discuss various actions including the draft of VVSG 2.1, a section of a recent executive order that allows the president to make election administration policy decisions. This action is not just concerning, but unconstitutional.

We implore the committee to rescind or reject the draft of VVSG 2.1 and to refrain from taking any action implementing the EO.

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted testimony to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees regarding judicial security and the increasing threats against judges.

The testimony noted that Congress must take seriously its role in conducting oversight of judicial security, and recognize how the physical safety of judges, their families and security of courthouses, affects each judge’s ability to independently consider the merits of the cases before them and issue decisions on controversial issues without fear of violence.

CREW’s testimony also raised alarm about section 70302 of the reconciliation bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, which attempts to restrict federal courts’ inherent contempt powers. At a time when the judiciary already is under attack, it would be dangerous to effectively sanction defiance of court orders by allowing this provision to be made into law.

Read the testimonies here and here.

CREW submitted testimony in May and June to the House and Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittees calling for transparency in opinions issued by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Of CREW’s 14 requests for OLC opinions since 2016, OLC has only released records for four of these requests. OLC’s failure to deliver documents to CREW is indicative of a much greater trend that affects individuals and organizations across the country similarly seeking transparency on the legal advice the executive branch receives from OLC. It is in Congress’s interest to also be privy to OLC’s legal opinions so that it can provide effective oversight and serve as a check on potential overreach by the executive branch.

Read the testimony to the House here. Read the testimony to the Senate here.

CREW submitted testimony in May and June to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees’ Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittees calling for adequate judicial security funding for the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and for language to ensure that funding is used for that purpose. CREW also urged the subcommittee to require the USMS to report to Congress on its use of these funds and to require the Judicial Conference of the United States to tell Congress if the USMS fails to provide adequate security.

In recent years, the USMS has not received enough resources to  effectively carry out its duty to provide security for federal judges. Additionally, the Trump administration has attempted to politicize the USMS, raising concerns that the USMS could attempt to divert judicial security funding to other purposes. To maintain judicial independence, Congress must use its authority to increase funding for—and require that the USMS use that funding for—judicial security.

Read the testimony to the House here. Read the testimony to the Senate here.

CREW and VoteVets Action Fund submitted a comment objecting to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) April 23, 2025 proposed rule which would remove civil service protections for thousands of civil servants.

The proposed rule is an attempted revival of President Trump’s 2020 Executive Order 13957,“Schedule F,” which stripped employment protections from thousands of career civil servants. This proposal threatens the integrity of the merit-based civil service system, which replaced the spoils system to limit corruption. The proposed rule would further the administration’s capacity to enact mass federal firings, on top of the 58,000 federal employee cuts so far. 

Mass firing of civil servants disproportionately targets veterans, who make up 30% of the federal civilian workforce. The veteran unemployment rate is 3.8%, but may increase as protections are dismantled. This rule is likely to lead to mass firings, retaliation against whistleblowers, legal challenges and limited capacity to serve the public. CREW and VoteVets Action Fund urge OPM to withdraw the rule and reaffirm commitment to the nonpartisan, merit-based workforce that the American public deserves.

Read the comment here.

It’s time to ban congressional stock trading, once and for all. CREW and 10 groups sent a letter urging members of the House of Representatives to pass a comprehensive, bipartisan bill banning members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks, bonds or other similar financial investments. In early May, a bipartisan group of House members announced they had been meeting to coalesce around a proposal to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks. We commend these lawmakers for their leadership and bipartisan collaboration on this crucial issue.

Leaders in the House have introduced multiple stock ban bills over recent years, reflecting a rare instance of bipartisan consensus in an otherwise deeply polarized institution. And in the Senate last Congress, a bipartisan group of lawmakers collaborated on a bill that included strong elements from many previous pieces of legislation introduced. Now, there is an opportunity for the House to come together to support a strong and comprehensive bipartisan bill, and begin to restore the public’s trust in Congress.

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted a comment to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to voice concerns about the proposed interim final rule on reporting requirements for corporations, which will weaken anti-corruption and national security protections mandated by Congress in the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

The interim final rule seeks to justify the decision to exempt domestic corporations and individuals who are owners of foreign reporting companies from reporting beneficial ownership information (BOI). That raises serious transparency concerns, since authorities cannot actually know that domestic reporting companies aren’t shells for foreign interest without collecting BOI.

The Corporate Transparency Act was created to combat terrorism, human trafficking, money laundering, tax fraud and other financial crimes—and should be implemented as Congress originally envisioned. Efforts like this interim rule to weaken reporting requirements effectively restricts the United States’ ability to combat illicit finance and track cash flows through webs of shell companies. 

Read the comment here.

President Trump’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar—to be used first as Air Force One then given to Trump’s presidential library foundation—is cause for bipartisan concern and raises incredibly serious corruption and national security risks. Congress should hold a public hearing as soon as possible assessing the consequences of accepting this so-called gift, CREW President Noah Bookbinder and Society for the Rule of Law Executive Director Gregg Nunziata told Congressional leadership in a letter sent today. 

The framers of the Constitution sought to prevent corruption and reduce even the appearance of impropriety in the Foreign Emoluments Clause. President Trump’s reported plan to accept a Boeing 747-8 from the Qatari government could potentially violate the Constitution.

This arrangement raises the specter that the Qatari government could receive potential favorable treatment as a result of this gift, and sends a troubling message to foreign governments who may be seeking to curry favor with the administration: that influence with the White House is for sale.

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted a statement for the record to the House Appropriations Committee on private prison and ICE contracts.

The Trump administration’s request for an unprecedented $45 billion for new private contracts to expand immigration detention over two years raises questions about how this money will be spent—and how migrants’ rights will be harmed in the process. Furthermore, the administration’s mass deportation policies will line the pockets of private contractors in the private prison industry, furthering a troubling connection between mass deportation and corruption.

Congress must ensure that federal tax dollars are not misused for legally questionable mass detention and deportation that line the pockets of political patrons by handing them multimillion dollar contracts to detain and deport people many of whom have never committed a crime.

Read the statement here. 

As judges confront an increasing and unprecedented number of threats, CREW and 24 other groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, Common Cause, People for the American Way and the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund sent a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees urging legislators to bolster appropriations for judicial security and reject efforts to undercut the judiciary’s independence.

The groups urged Congress to explicitly require that the USMS fulfill the Judicial Conference’s requested security requirements, prevent the USMS from diverting judicial security funding to other purposes and provide adequate funding for the USMS to fulfill its statutory function. They also urged Congress to reject efforts to use the appropriations process to limit federal courts’ ability to issue injunctive relief or to impose or enforce contempt sanctions for failure to comply with such orders.

Read the letter here.

Since President Trump’s day one executive orders “pausing” funding appropriated by Congress, his attacks on federal funding and potential violations of the Impoundment Control Act have only escalated. In January, CREW sent a letter to congressional leadership urging Congress to  investigate withholdings by the executive branch and ensure that the Trump administration complies with the law. But the administration has yet to send a special message under the ICA, has continued its attempts to unilaterally slash federal spending and has stopped complying with the apportionment transparency requirement (which CREW has sued to enforce).

The administration’s apparent disregard for the funding levels set by Congress strips Congress of its power of the purse and sets the stage for the administration to claim that it cannot carry out other laws. If Congress yields, then the American people effectively lose their legislative representation.

Congress must ensure that does not happen by investigating the administration’s attempts to cut federal spending and take action to end any violations immediately.

Read the letter here.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Election Assistance Commission (EAC) both must move expeditiously to hire permanent Inspectors General (IG), according to letters CREW sent to both agencies. The FEC and EAC must have permanent IGs to ensure the integrity of these agencies which both have crucial roles to play in this year’s elections.

The last time the FEC had an Inspector General vacancy, the agency struggled to fill the role for more than two years and after the lone deputy IG resigned, the agency was unable to conduct formal investigations and audits for more than six months. A vacancy lasting that long would be disastrous for an agency facing questions about its inaction and refusal to enforce federal campaign finance law and lack of transparency in its recusal process.

The EAC is facing challenges, including its executive director’s firing, budget cuts and difficulty retaining staff. Escalating attacks on election workers, voting rights and democratic institutions reinforce the need for EAC to fulfill its mission. The stability and crucial oversight provided by a permanent IG would help ensure the EAC is able to carry out that mission.

Read the FEC and EAC letter here.

CREW submitted a statement for the record to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on “The Freedom of Information Act: Perspectives from Public Requesters” on the government’s attack on FOIA processes and offices.

The Trump administration has taken actions that profoundly hinder transparency under FOIA. In particular, the Trump administration’s mass firings across the government have included FOIA officials, which will likely obstruct the public’s right to request and receive information through the FOIA process. It appears as though an essential legal mechanism used to ensure that the federal government is spending taxpayer resources effectively and making decisions in the best interests of all Americans may be effectively incapacitated—without any regard for the administration’s legal obligations and Congress’s longstanding support of FOIA.

Congress should reassert its longstanding bipartisan commitment to FOIA and government transparency and work together to not only improve the law, but ensure that government FOIA offices are fully staffed and permitted to carry out their legal obligations without political interference.

Read the statement for the record here.

CREW sent a letter to Marco Rubio, the Acting Archivist of the United States, and those who work under him at the National Archives and Records Administration, asking them to instruct the U.S. Agency for International Development to immediately cease destroying records, to preserve all federal records and to report any unlawful removal, alteration or destruction of records to NARA.

CREW’s letter follows reports on email obtained that was sent by the Acting Executive Secretary of USAID to agency staff, instructing them to “[s]hred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.” The Federal Records Act has legal requirements for how USAID is supposed to preserve its records, and has strict limits on the circumstances under which they can be destroyed. The email obtained from the Acting Executive Secretary of USAID appears to show that these requirements are at risk of being violated.

Read the letter here.

To date, the National Archives has not responded to CREW’s February 14 letter alerting them to the potential failure of DOGE and Elon Musk to preserve federal records, in particular DOGE communications on X and any government business conducted on private systems at Musk’s businesses. CREW sent a 2nd letter to NARA calling on them to perform their mandatory duties under the Federal Records Act, which are to investigate and pursue remedial action against DOGE and Mr. Musk’s if they failed to preserve federal records. 

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted a comment this week on the FEC’s recent rulemaking proposal that could result in even less transparency into who is funding federal elections. As CREW’s comment notes, the proposed rulemaking is at least a significant improvement over the Commission’s original proposal, which could leave voters entirely in the dark about who is funding our elections.  But the revised rulemaking is still problematic. Most significantly, the FEC’s proposal to conduct its proceedings entirely in secret violates the law and leaves voters without any ability to hold the agency accountable.    

Read the comment here.

CREW sent a letter to the National Archives requesting that the agency investigate and take appropriate remedial action in response to any failure by the Department of Government Efficiency or its staff, including Elon Musk, to preserve federal records. Those records may include public posts and direct messages on X, as well as communications conducting public business on internal systems at Mr. Musk’s private businesses. If NARA does not take action, CREW announced plans to take legal action to hold the agency to its preservation obligations under the Federal Records Act.

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted a comment to the General Services Administration (GSA) advocating for a series of reforms to increase public access to information on the executive branch’s actions.

CREW advocated for the reestablishment of a White House visitor log database, as was established during the Obama administration, in addition to the establishment of a database for legal opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel, guidelines for cabinet secretaries and their deputies to make meeting calendars publicly accessible, improved databases for already existing executive branch ethics documents and finally the establishment of a Chief Anti-Corruption and Accountability Officer within the White House.

CREW sees revised ethics infrastructure, as well as a more accessible public archive of executive branch meetings, as imperative for addressing a critical lack of government accountability.

Read the comment here.

CREW submitted testimony to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs hearing “Ensuring A Trustworthy Government: Examining The National Security Risks Of Replacing Nonpartisan Civil Servants With Political Appointees” on the dangers of dismantling the merit-based civil service system. 

Schedule F, issued by former President Trump, would have increased presidential control over the federal career public service. Had President Biden not rescinded it, Schedule F would have stripped tens of thousands of federal employees of their merit-based civil service protections, including the protection against being fired based on political whims, undermining democracy. 

CREW urges Congress to pass the bipartisan Saving The Civil Service Act to ensure that civil servants cannot be hired and fired based on their loyalty or disloyalty to a particular president or political party. The bill would protect the civil service and establish measures to prevent a future president from reissuing Schedule F. 

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted a comment to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) endorsing the proposed rulemaking to extend the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Death in Custody Report Act (DCRA) data collection form. 

The DCRA is designed to ensure transparency and accountability regarding deaths in custody by requiring states and territories receiving specified federal grants to report data on deaths in custody, which includes deaths in jail, prisons or during arrests.  The proposed rule suggests improved data collection methods which would enhance the precision, timeliness and comprehensiveness of data.  This provides an opportunity to bolster efforts to effectively shape policy, understand the negative impact of the criminal legal system and conduct the oversight needed to reduce in-custody deaths. 

CREW supports the initiative to expand data collection under the DCRA and urges the OMB to adopt the proposed rule swiftly. 

Read the comment here.

CREW submitted testimony on the FY 2025 Appropriations Bill to the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee on the need to improve transparency and the public availability of opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).

The OLC provides legal advice to the executive branch and its agencies, and it is in the long-term interest of all citizens to have access to OLC opinions, a measure CREW has long advocated for. Additionally, increasing transparency and public access will allow Congress to provide effective oversight and monitor potential overreach of the executive branch.

Despite efforts from both House and Senate Appropriators to increase OLC transparency in recent years, the OLC has not yet begun the process of proactive disclosure. To successfully shed light on the OLC’s secret interpretations of the law, CREW urges the subcommittee to adopt stronger language to ensure OLC compliance with new reporting requirements.

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted testimony in April and May to the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch and a letter to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, on the need to improve the transparency of the U.S. Capitol Police Inspector General by establishing a process and timeline for publicly releasing its reports. Effective oversight and transparency of the Capitol Police are essential to safeguarding members of Congress and their staff, as seen during the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. The USCP Inspector General, who is responsible for providing independent oversight of the USCP and ensuring its efficiency through investigations and reports, has made only a fraction of its reports publicly available. The USCP IG must establish a process and timeline for the release of its oversight reports—including clearing its backlog of unreleased reports and publishing all new reports within two weeks of their completion—to ensure the security of the Capitol and our democracy.

Read the testimony to the House here and the letter to the Senate here.

To ensure America’s courts operate fairly, the questionable practice of “judge shopping” must end.  CREW, along with more than 20 other groups, sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, urging him to address judge shopping.

Judge shopping is an increasingly favored tactic of the right-wing legal movement which enables plaintiffs to handpick ideologically-aligned judges who may be more likely to enact extreme policies contrary to the values of the American people by inventing reasons to file cases in single-judge divisions. The Justice Department and American Bar Association have expressed concern about judge shopping and calls for reform have been made by members of Congress and legal experts across the ideological spectrum.  

Despite announcing efforts to combat judge shopping, the Judicial Conference appears to have watered down its commitment in response to attacks from Republican senators and allies in their right-wing legal movement. Judiciary Committee Chair Senator Durbin must use his oversight powers to ensure transparency in the Judicial Conference to combat these attacks on the courts’ legitimacy and impartiality.

Read the letter here.

CREW sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer in response to their committees’ activities over the last year, which have in some cases failed to lead to effective oversight and caused real harm to the American people. Congressional oversight should be used to uncover corruption, tackle financial waste and make the government run better—not for illegitimate, politically motivated attacks.

Over the last year, these committees’ actions have precipitated the shutdown of critical disinformation research centers, contributed to educator shortages by interfering in the education system, interfered in ongoing investigations—damaging public trust in the justice system and contributing to an environment of intimidation—and further endangered Americans’ financial safety nets in the face of natural disasters. CREW urges the committee chairs to consider the impact their committees’ initiatives have beyond the walls of Congress and to finish the 118th Congress with the public interest in mind.

Read the letter here.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, anonymously sourced money has flooded our political system, leaving American voters in the dark about who is trying to influence their decisions at the ballot box and who may be influencing the decisions of their elected officials. Much of that secret spending has been shielded from public view through the use of section 501(c)(4) organizations that engage in political activity without disclosing who finances their expenditures—an arrangement that has been described as “the perfect vehicle for bribery.” Congress should take action to shine light on dark money by empowering the IRS to both enforce and clarify the rules governing political activity by tax-exempt organizations and by closing loopholes in campaign finance law. CREW submitted testimony for the record to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, urging them to take action.

Read the testimony here.

CREW submitted a comment to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in support of the proposed rulemaking to bolster the federal civil service and protect the merit system. At the end of his term, former President Trump considered a radical proposal to effectively dismantle the merit-based civil service and return to the spoils system, which flourished under President Andrew Jackson. CREW’s comment underscores the importance of OPM’s proposed rule as a bulwark against a return to a government built on patronage and corrupt kickbacks rather than on nonpartisan expertise. The proposed rule would help prevent the dangers of partisan bureaucracy by ensuring the protections afforded to career federal employees can’t be arbitrarily withdrawn to suit the political desires of any given presidential administration. CREW supports the rule and encourages OPM to adopt it as expeditiously as possible.

Read the comment here.

The federal Bureau of Prisons’ history of operational challenges has led to a culture of employee misconduct, kept hidden from the public view because of inadequate transparency measures. Reform is necessary, and increased Congressional oversight and accountability are crucial. CREW submitted a statement for the record to the House Committee on the Judiciary, urging increased oversight of BOP and that the Federal Prison Oversight Act be voted out of committee.

Read the testimony here.

CREW sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission in support of Public Citizen’s petition for a rulemaking around the use of deceptive AI in campaign communications. A deep fake depicting an opponent saying or doing something they did not do or say appears to violate federal law, yet campaigns and political committees have begun using them to deceive the public. As artificial intelligence and deepfake technology advance, it is crucial that our elections are not compromised by misleading and deceptive communications, and that federal agencies ensure that their practices, guidance and regulatory and enforcement regimes keep up. CREW strongly urged the FEC to clarify that the law applies to the misleading use of deepfakes in campaign advertisements.

Read the letter here.

One important component of addressing violent domestic extremism is ensuring that violent extremists are not within Department of Homeland Security’s ranks. CREW and Western States Center along with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights First, Common Cause and 18 other groups sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas outlining the risks of domestic extremism within and outside of the agency, urging him to take action and update the public on what efforts have been taken.

Read more about the letter here.

BOP’s internal operations have created a culture of widespread employee misconduct, the true scale of which is hidden from public view because of inadequate transparency measures, and increased Congressional oversight and accountability is crucial. CREW submitted a statement for the record to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, urging increased oversight of BOP and that the Federal Prison Oversight Act be voted out of committee.

Read the testimony here.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Congress must enact policies that prevent the use of tax-exempt organizations for bribery and dark money in politics. Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, anonymously sourced money has flooded our political system and left Americans blind to who may be influencing their elections. As requested, CREW has shared recommendations with the House Ways and Means Committee on the issue of dark money in tax-exempt organizations, including closing loopholes and more aggressive enforcement of current laws and regulations.

Read the letter here.

CREW sent a letter to Congress in support of the Federal Prison Oversight Act. This bipartisan, bicameral bill would address the corruption and sexual and physical abuse in federal prisons by bringing oversight and accountability to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and its facilities. The BOP has failed to protect inmates and hold employees accountable for the unlawful conditions in prisons, as demonstrated by delays in investigating sexual assault and rape complaints and a backlog of thousands of cases. This bill would implement measures like federal watchdog inspections and reporting requirements and methods to ensure the wellbeing of incarcerated individuals.

Read the letter here.

CREW sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission in support of Public Citizen’s petition for a rulemaking around the use of deceptive AI in campaign communications. A deepfake audio or video clip by a campaign that claims to show an opponent saying or doing something they did not say or do appears to violate federal law. Campaigns and political committees have already begun to use deepfakes in misleading ways, and CREW strongly urged the FEC to clarify that the law applies to the misleading use of deepfakes without sufficient disclaimers.

Read the letter here.

CREW sent a letter to Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Lindsey Graham of the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act (“SCERT Act”). The SCERT Act would bring much needed transparency and accountability to the Supreme Court’s ethical framework, by creating a critical recusal and disclosure system. Justices are not above the law and should be held to the highest ethical standards.

Read the letter here.

CREW submitted testimony to the House Committee on Financial Services in support of fully implementing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA would transform the United States into a world leader against illicit finance by increasing corporate transparency laws and empowering law enforcement with the ability to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.  It is necessary that Congress and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network recommit to ensuring the CTA’s full implementation and are not swayed by those seeking to weaken the law in service of their own financial interests.

Read the testimony here.

Update: On August 16, CREW received a response, noting that the new online database has created additional workload for the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, but that supplemental funding has been requested and received for additional staffing support, which should help facilitate more timely access to judges’ financial disclosures.

Federal judges and justices must disclose their missing financial statements for 2021, according to a letter CREW sent to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts about the 44% of judges whose financial statements were missing from the public database months after the deadline. The Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act now requires annual disclosures in an effort to restore public trust in the courts, and it is crucial that this provision be enforced.

Read the letter here.

Congress must act on Supreme Court ethics reform, according to testimony CREW submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on judicial ethics today. CREW recommended the committee take specific concrete steps toward a more ethical and accountable Supreme Court.

Justice Clarence Thomas’s recently uncovered personal and financial relationship with billionaire political donor Harlan Crow is an egregious ethics scandal that may even be criminal. Crow has donated millions of dollars to conservative figures and groups over three decades and has had business before the court, and Thomas accepting his gifts in secret perfectly illustrates the Supreme Court’s broken ethics system. While Thomas’s refusal to disclose these gifts has led to calls for reform and higher ethical standards for the justices, he likely won’t be held accountable, eroding the Supreme Court’s institutional legitimacy even further.

For decades, conservative and liberal judges and justices have tested the limits of the system’s weak ethics rules. Congress must step in and impose real measures of accountability on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.

Read the testimony here. 

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy must either retrieve the 44,000 hours of video footage from January 6, 2021 that he provided to Tucker Carlson or promptly make the same footage available to the public, according to a letter CREW and Public Citizen sent to McCarthy. 

McCarthy’s release of a massive trove of sensitive government material to a politically-friendly media outlet is both unprecedented and dangerous. Reports show that McCarthy did so without consulting the Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police or his colleagues in Congress, many of whom have now raised grave concerns that some of the footage could expose security vulnerabilities and increase the risk for future attacks on the Capitol complex, especially if released selectively or deceptively.

If McCarthy refuses to retrieve the videos from Carlson—which CREW and Public Citizen strongly encourage and prefer—then the videos must be made available to the American public.

Read the letter here.

The Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government is poised to undermine the credibility, impartiality and independence of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, unless it focuses on actual instances of government weaponization which have undermined our democracy, according to a letter CREW sent to the subcommittee.

The scope of the resolution establishing the subcommittee raises concerns that giving such unconstrained powers to Congress would allow congressional interference with the justice system for political gain. While legitimate congressional oversight of federal agencies is crucial, interfering in ongoing criminal investigations—which the resolution authorizes—is not legitimate oversight. It is a weaponization of Congress’s oversight power.

The DOJ and FBI’s impartiality is key to advancing accountability, justice and safety when domestic violent extremism is rising. The Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee will undermine the work of these independent oversight agencies and interfere in ongoing investigations should it choose to willfully ignore instances of actual government weaponization.

Read the letter here.

Congress must take steps in the new session to increase oversight and focus on rooting out corruption and strengthening our democracy, according to a letter CREW sent to Congressional leaders. The letter recommends an enforceable agenda focused on conducting meaningful oversight to address corruption, increase transparency, and reduce government waste, rather than partisanship.

The oversight agenda laid out by CREW includes ten recommendations, including mandating the White House disclose information about official visits to the White House and other locations frequented by the president, calling for the removal of the Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton, reforming the Freedom of Information Act, and requiring the Supreme Court to establish a public and binding code of ethics. CREW also recommends investigations into pandemic load fraud and the Department of Defense’s potential violation of the Emoluments Clause, which aims to prevent corruption and limit foreign influence on federal officers.

Comprehensive oversight deliberately designed to fight corruption is essential for a transparent and functioning democracy, and the 118th Congress must prioritize it.

Read the letter here.