The Republican-led House of Representatives sent a bill authored by a Democrat to President Obama’s desk that would limit the ability of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to destroy cultural sites and profit from the selling of priceless antiques.
Expert witnesses, while testifying before a House panel about the unprecedented level of looting and destruction of priceless antiques by jihadist groups across the Middle East, identified collectors from Europe and the United States as top buyers of ancient artifacts illegally sold by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS).
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has sent a letter to Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew asking for answers on the 2010 approval by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) of a controversial deal in which the Russian government gained control of 20 percent of America’s uranium deposits.
Tuesday’s subcommittee hearing on Operation Choke Point is likely to be just the beginning of even stronger efforts by members of Congress to call executive agencies to account for their ongoing abuses of power as part of Operation Choke Point. Whether Congress will choose to exercise its constitutional authority and fire out-of-control executive bureaucrats as a first step in reasserting its legitimate powers remains to be seen.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seems to be playing a much larger role in the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point these days. But you wouldn’t know that from the gentle questioning of CFPB Director Richard Cordray on Capitol Hill.
Who’s holding the watchdogs accountable? The head of the CFPB shoots down a Congressmember’s question about his agency’s lavish spending. “Why does that matter to you?”