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Senate Homeland Security committee updates rules for 119th Congress; chair pledges shared access to records
Summary
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs adopted updated committee rules by voice vote. Chairman and Ranking Member discussed minority rights, subpoena procedures and a committee server for member access to collected documents.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Jan. 16 adopted an updated rules package for the 119th Congress by voice vote, the chairman announced after a committee quorum was noted and debate on the changes concluded.
The rules were approved after brief debate between Chairman Paul and Ranking Member Gary Peters. Peters said the committee has a long history of unanimous rules votes and expressed concern that changes to minority subpoena rights had weakened the minority's leverage; he said he accepted several concessions and will support the package but urged close cooperation going forward.
Chairman Paul said the committee will post collected executive-branch documents on a secure server so members and their staffs can access records without ad hoc printing requests and said he was committed to working with the minority on records requests. The chair described the rules update as part of the committee's oversight responsibilities for the executive branch.
The motion to adopt the updated rules was made by the chair and carried on a voice vote; the chair announced "the ayes have it" and directed staff to implement a server for member access. Members did not request a roll-call vote on the rules package during the session.
